Jørgen Lindgaard Pedersen

Adoption and perspectives of precision farming in Denmark

Precision farming (PF) and site-specific input application based on GPS has been a management tool and option for arable farmers for about 10 years. About 400 Danish farmers have already adopted some PF practices on their farms. This adoption and the technical and economic perspectives of PF have been studied in two mail surveys, personal interviews and focus groups with farmers, advisers and experts. Farmers and stakeholders are in general optimistic about the future perspectives of these high-technology systems despite the difficulties in showing the economic and environmental gains. Lack of compatibility between different technical systems is however mentioned as a barrier for adoption.

Evaluation of research projects – Perspectives for applied research in food and agriculture

Abstract In this study, the task of evaluating research projects’ relevance and scientific quality is addressed, and a pilot study is executed for five Danish food and agricultural research programmes. Literature reviewed emphasises the importance of context, of consistency and transparency and of the cost of evaluation. Moreover, the purpose of research evaluation is thoroughly examined. The method developed and implemented addresses each of these concerns, particularly by employing simple measures and by complementing quantitative analysis with qualitative exercises featuring structured stakeholder interviews. The results of the pilot indicate substantial variation between projects within programmes, and some evidence of size-performance relationships.

Book Reviews : Boel Berner: Tekmkens Varld. Teknisk Forandring och Ingenjorsabete i svensk Industri. (The World of Technology. Technical Change and Engineering Labour in Swedish Industry), Arkiv Avhandlingsserie, Arkiv for Studier i Arbetarrörelsens Historia, Lund 1981. 294 pp

this tradition is unable to specify technology as such and to account for the causes of technical change. Joseph A. Schumpeter is acknowledged as the great outsider in bourgeois economic theory and analysis. Bourgeois macrosociology does not fare much better than its economic counterpart with regard to the issue of specifying and explamng technological change. In the following chapters in this section Berner