Lessons to be learned in adoption of autonomous equipment for field crops

Lowenberg-DeBoer, J., Behrendt, K., Ehlers, M.-H., Dillon, C., Gabriel, A., Huang, I., Kumwenda, I., Mark, T., Meyer-Aurich, A., Milics, G., Olgunju, K. O., Pedersen, S. M., Shockley, J. and Rose, D. (2022) Lessons to be learned in adoption of autonomous equipment for field crops. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, 44 (2). pp. 848-864. ISSN 2040-5790 doi: 10.1002/aepp.13177

Abstract/Summary

Autonomous equipment for crop production is on the verge of technical and economic feasibility, but government regulation may slow its adoption. Key regulatory issues include requirements for on-site human supervision, liability for autonomous machine error, and intellectual property in robotic learning. As an example of the impact of regulation on the economic benefits of autonomous crop equipment, analysis from the United Kingdom suggests that requiring 100% on-site human supervision almost wipes out the economic benefits of autonomous crop equipment for small and medium farms and increases the economies-of-scale advantage of larger farms.