Factors Affecting e-Government Adoption by Dairy Farmers: A Case Study in the North-West of Spain

With the objective of assessing the farmers' situation regarding the use of the ICT and their relations with the electronic government, a case study consisting in the realization of 34 face-to-face surveys was conducted between February and March 2020 in dairy farms in the region of Galicia (Spain). The sample was selected according to one of the most important online journals in the farming sector at a national level. From the census, we chose those farms considered most representative taking into account the main criteria: the level of PAC (Common Agrarian Politics) subsidies and milk production (litres/cow and year). The results show that the majority of the farmers used the internet, but on many an occasion, they were discontented in relation to the poor connection quality in their farms. In regard to the use of the electronic government for procedures related to their farms, many of them were able to perform them through the government website; however, there were procedures which the users defined as "complex" and which had to be outsourced to authorised entities. The results also show that the farmers do want to employ the e-government, mainly because of the time and cost saving; however, the current web pages do not meet the users' expectations. Finally, this situation, applied to a region placed among the 10 most productive regions of milk, is comparable to what happens in other regions.