USDA: More Farmers Using Internet

Farmers say they’re increasingly using the internet to speed up their work flow, improve their farming techniques, market their crops, connect with customers and retailers and fulfill a variety of regulatory requirements. According to a report issued by the USDA, within the past decade the number of farms with an internet connection has increased by nearly 20%. More than half of America’s farms now have access to the internet, with farmers in the West with the highest access. Farmers in the South have the lowest access.

For farms with $250,000 or more in commodity sales, 84% have access to a computer, 72% use it in their farm business and 82% have it connected to the Internet. But when gross sales revenue drops off, so does computer access and use. Farms in the $10,000 to $100,000 category report 63% have a computer, and 60% have an Internet connection, but only 41% use their computer for farm business purposes.

Despite the enormous benefits to using the new technology, barriers remain for many farmers, said Richard Molinar, a small farm adviser at the University of California Cooperative Extension in Fresno.

Older farmers and immigrant farmers tend not to use the internet or digital devices. And while the cost of computers, phones and internet connections has fallen, for small farmers the expense can be prohibitive. Some farmers still struggle with dial-up connections and inadequate cell service. Web pages take too long to load, and phone calls get dropped.

Rural America still lags behind urban areas when it comes to fast-speed internet, according a report by the U.S. Department of Commerce. In rural areas, 60% of households use broadband internet — 10% less than urban households.

Those internet connections are composed of a variety of ways: Thirty-eight percent of connections are DSL. Dialup connections dropped from 23% in 2009 to 12% in 2011. Satellite was 15% and Wireless was 20%. Cable connected 11% of farms in 2011. ♦