Possibilities of using digital technologies in agriculture in areas with high agrarian fragmentation

The data set presents the part of research results financed by the National Science Centre in Poland as part of the MINIATURA7 scientific activity. The main objective of the research was to identify the possibilities of using digital solutions to enable knowledge sharing in the operating conditions of farms from areas with high agrarian fragmentation. As part of the research objective, the first aim was to determine the technological, social, and economic limitations of using digital solutions in farms operating in areas with high agrarian fragmentation and also to identify differences in the potential for implementing individual digital solutions depending on the size of the farm and the type of activity conducted in the surveyed area. The area of the research was designated as the area of the Polish voivodeships with the highest level of agrarian fragmentation - the Małopolskie and Podkarpackie voivodeships, in which the average area of an agricultural farm in 2020 was 5.26 ha and 5.97 ha, respectively. Using the questionnaire method, 389 agricultural farms in this area were surveyed. The average size of the surveyed farms was 8.4 ha, and their area ranged from 1 ha to 390 ha. A stratified random sampling was used. First, six counties were drawn from the Małopolskie and Podkarpackie provinces, and then a questionnaire survey was conducted in the randomly selected farms. Proportionally to the number of farms operating in the surveyed provinces, 205 farms from the Małopolskie province and 184 farms from the Podkarpackie province were surveyed. In each case, the person answering the questions was the farm manager. The analysis included the division of the surveyed farms into groups according to their area. For this purpose, the quartile method was used, which allowed the following groups of farms to be identified: • Farms with less than or equal to 2.7 ha (106 farms with an average area of 1.98 ha). • Farms with more than 2.7 ha and less than or equal to 4 ha (93 farms with an average area of 3.39 ha). • Farms with an area of more than 4 ha and less than or equal to 7.8 ha (94 farms with an average area of 5.47 ha). • Farms with more than 7.8 ha (96 farms with an average area of 23.10 ha). Data were also compiled according to the characteristics of the farm manager, such as level and type of education, age, and gender. Data related to the topic of the Possibilities of using digital technologies in agriculture in areas with high agrarian fragmentation were presented in tabular form in five Excel files and their combined form in a PDF file. The individual tabular reports contain the following types of data: • Data set 1: Data on Age, Gender, Respondents' education, Employment, Farm Organizational form, Type of farm, Dominant production direction, Production directions, Digital technologies used in the surveyed farms in the surveyed group in general, and depending on the size of the farm • Data set 2: Data on the use of digital technologies in farms divided into groups according to the farmer's age- the farm's owner. Data on barriers to the use of Digital technologies in the group in general and depending on the age of the farm owner. • Data set 3: Data on the use of digital technologies and barriers to their implementation in groups of farms divided according to the farm owner's education type. • Data set 4: Directions of agricultural production implemented in farms using and not using digital technologies. • Data set 5: Barriers to implementing digital technologies depending on the size of the farm.