Computers and the nature of farm management |
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Authors: | Ulrich Nitsch |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Extension Education, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Box 7013, 75007 Uppsala, Sweden |
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Abstract: | The introduction of computer-based information systems to be used by farmers, as in many other fields, is preceded mostly
by great expectations. Some persons even tend to think that eventually the computer might take over farm management. This
article tries to make an assessment of the validity of such expectations. Based upon a study among Swedish farmers, it examines
the nature of farmers' decision-making. The latter is based upon an adaptive rationality, as opposed to the normative models
of formal rationality used by scientists. Essential to this rationality are coordination skills: the ability of farmers to
arrange the many interacting factors important to the totality of a farm in a satisfactory way. What the farmer needs in this
complex situation is personal communication and tacit knowledge, knowledge that cannot be reduced to facts and rules. Consequently
computer-based information systems can be useful tools only in some aspects of farm management, but they will never replace
farmer's decision-making. To understand the possibilities of the computer as a tool in farm management, a distinction between
interpretation skills and application skills is necessary. |
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