Since 2018, Farm Journal has conducted research on how farmers buy inputs. In its six studies dedicated to exploring purchase preferences, the percentage of respondents saying they bought some of their fertilizer, crop protection or seed from online sources ranged from 8% to 18%.
This year, the research effort was revamped to ask questions that reflect the industry’s tools available to farmers. In the past decade, ag retailers have transformed their perspective of what it means to buy online—both for their farmer-customers and their businesses. It has shifted from being perceived as a threat to being embraced via portals or online offerings to now being embedded in their digitization journey.
As such, Farm Journal conducted two studies via email in the early fall to measure farmer input purchase behaviors. Here are some of the key takeaways.
