Possibilities of using decision support systems for 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, among others, it was aimed to verify how the usefulness of individual digital solutions enabling knowledge sharing is assessed in farms operating in agrarian fragmentation areas to recognize differences in the potential of implementing individual digital solutions depending on the size of the farm and the type of activity conducted in the studied area and to recognize the potential of digital technologies in improving knowledge transfer in agriculture in the studied 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. For the purposes of the study, the following were considered to be components of decision support systems: cloud-based farm management systems, decision support applications, and plant disease recognition applications. The analysis included the division of the surveyed farms into two groups according to their area (separated based on the median value). This allowed the following groups of farms to be identified: • Farms with less than or equal to 4 ha (199 farms with an average size of 2.64 ha). • Farms with more than 4 ha and less than or equal to 4 ha (190 farms with an average size of 14.38 ha). Data sets were also presented depending on the age of the farm owner and the use of at least one decision-support technology on the farm. The general characteristics of the surveyed farms (supporting the interpretation of the presented data) are also presented in terms of their four groups, separated based on the quartile method: • 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 related to the topic of the Possibilities of using decision support systems for agriculture in areas with high agrarian fragmentation were presented in tabular form in 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 types (including decision support systems) used in the surveyed farms in the surveyed group in general, and depending on the size of the farm • Data set 4: Directions of agricultural production implemented in farms using and not using digital technologies. It is worth noting that in the surveyed area if digital technologies were used, these were mainly decision support systems. • Data set 6: Barriers to the use of decision support systems in the surveyed group in general and their perception depending on the type of education of the farmer managing the farm, his age, and the size of the farm • Data set 7: Assessment of the usability of decision support system functions in the surveyed group in general and depending on the farm size, the type of education of the farmer managing the farm, and the use or not of decision support systems.