Vegetable Growers Praise Increased Efficiency that Accompanies Precision Agriculture
July 6, 2022 
The percentage of U.S. vegetable growers who use precision agriculture tools remains just under 50%, according to American Vegetable Grower® 2022 State of the Vegetable Industry survey results.
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Among 394 survey respondents to this question, 48% use such technology — higher than each of the three previous annual surveys. The 2019 report is a squeak ahead of 2022, up by only one percentage point comparison.
When asked what drives them to implement such precision agriculture technology, the most popular grower response, by a landslide, is increased efficiency (66%). Other popular reasons are improved crop quality (36%), improved water conservation (35%), lack of labor (29%), and a want for more data to help in decision making (28%).
The most frequently used precision agriculture tool, cited by 44% of respondents, involves software that monitors and predicts the weather. Close behind are GPS/GIS technology (36%), automated steering (34%), irrigation sensors (32%), and grid soil sampling (31%).
Total Acreage Indicative
Among the 52% of growers who do not currently use precision agriculture tools, almost a quarter (24%) plan on implementing them within the next five years.
Size of farm continues to largely dictate whether farmers use precision agriculture. Among the respondents who do not use such technology, nearly two-thirds (62%) claim they are too small to do so.
Overall, only a third of the growers with less than 25 acres use precision agriculture. As acreage ascends, so, too, does the percentage of precision agriculture users: 25-99 acres (44%), 100-499 (51%), 500-999 (75%), 1,000-2,499 (84%), and 2,500-plus (94%).
Other reasons for vegetable growers resisting precision agriculture revolve around cost (34%), lack of confidence in ROI (22%), and lack of necessity (21%).
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