Automated Irrigation: Exploring the Paradox of Plateauing Adoption Levels and High Perceived Benefits Amid a Labor Shortage in US Nurseries

The US nursery crop industry relies heavily on manual labor for many tasks, including irrigation. With the ongoing labor shortage and concomitant increase in labor costs, research and extension professionals need a better understanding of how current irrigation practices and systems impact the perceptions of producers and their adoption of automated irrigation technologies. A transdisciplinary team undertook a comprehensive nursery labor and automation survey in 2021 about adoption levels and related information in 2020. We report the previously unpublished results of the sub-objectives to evaluate the following: current adoption of irrigation automation technologies and delivery systems; percent automation of the collective individual tasks that comprise irrigation; and perceived helpfulness of automated irrigation. Data were analyzed by production system and by nursery sales as a measure of nursery size. Container nurseries adopt timer-based irrigation controllers more (69%) than field nurseries (32%; P ≤ 0.021). Above-median nurseries (i.e, those with annual sales >$1.4 million US) use timer-based irrigation controllers more (78% of the sample) than below-median nurseries (i.e., nurseries that report annual sales ≤$1.4 million US) (52%; P = 0.001). Irrigation timer adoption is limited for small nurseries and appears to have plateaued since the prior survey approximately 15 years ago despite nursery producers recognizing the labor-saving benefits of automated irrigation (4.1/5.0 perceived helpfulness scale; 1 = not at all helpful; 5 = extremely helpful). Furthermore, the only barrier related to irrigation adoption was that producers have “no interest/need” ( P = 0.018). Potential influences such as compatibility, disruptions to current operations, and the importance of relating labor savings to opportunity cost vs. dollar-value of time are discussed. These results highlight the need for more research to understand nursery producers’ hesitations, motivators, and how to better-overcome barriers to stimulate adoption of irrigation technology.