Need and Design of Computerized Farm Management Tools: Lessons learned from a Swedish case

In the 1980s the author was responsible for the development and marketing of on-farm computer systems in Sweden. Despite the efforts to use the best available knowledge and technology, the adoption rate was lower than expected. The aim of this study is to explain the slow adoption rate and suggest how computerized management tools should be designed to meet the needs of farmers. Many studies have tried to understand this problem, among others by the author. The research method is to review these studies as well as psychological literature. The main explanation of the slow adoption of on-farm computer systems is that computerized management tools produce analytical information, whereas farmers use to a great extent intuitive thinking and intuition for decision making. According to one study, even the farmers using analytical thinking, in addition to their intuition, prefer "intuitive" information. Analytical methods have to be used in computerized management tools, of course, but the adoption experience suggests that the output information from on-farm computer systems should be further processed to fit intuitive thinking. Conclusions are drawn about how to improve the design of computerized information systems.