The facts on internet use on farms may surprise you. That’s coming up on This Land of Ours.
The USDA’s 2023 Technology Use on Farms report found the areas that have the highest internet use aren’t anywhere near the Silicon Valley. Tony Dorn of the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) explains some of the findings.
“As far as the states, the New England states lead the nation with ninety-eight percent of farms with internet access. New Mexico and Arizona had the least percentage of farms with the Internet. New Mexico had the smallest percentage at fifty-five percent. We also collect information about ways that farmers connect to the internet including if they own or use a desktop or laptop, if the owner uses a smartphone, or has a tablet or other portable wireless computer or some other type of computer. So as far as that information goes, one of the highlights is the smartphone usage which has gone up,” he said. “In 2023 we see that eighty-two percent of farmers only use a smartphone to connect to the internet on the farm, and this was an increase from seventy-seven percent in 2021. One of the traditional ways most people connect to the internet is using a laptop or desktop and farmers reported doing that for sixty-nine percent for access to the internet. That compares with sixty-seven percent in 2021.”
That’s coming up on This Land of Ours.
Sabrina Halvorson
National Correspondent / AgNet Media, Inc.
Sabrina Halvorson is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster, and public speaker who specializes in agriculture. She primarily reports on legislative issues and hosts The AgNet News Hour and The AgNet Weekly podcast. Sabrina is a native of California’s agriculture-rich Central Valley.