Modeling multiple reasons for adopting precision technologies: Evidence from U.S. cotton producers

Before deciding to adopt a particular technology, an individual should assess the reasons for its adoption. The major reasons for adoption could be to profitability, environmental benefit, or to be at the forefront of the technology. Using Monte Carlo simulations, this study determined that seemingly unrelated ordered probit (SUOP) method performs better than a single ordered probit (UOP) method for analyzing factors affecting multiple reasons for adopting precision farming (PF) technologies. Results indicated that profit was the most important reason, and environmental benefits were the second most important reason for adopting PF technologies. Findings revealed that educated, experienced, and farmers with farm planning and computers chose PF technologies for profit reasons. Younger farmers and farmers using university publication information are more likely to indicate the importance of environmental quality benefits. Finally, farmers located in the Delta, Appalachia, and Southeast regions of the US are more likely to adopt PF technologies for environmental benefits reason, compared to farmers in the Southern Plains region.