Walsh, James A.
(2012)
Adoption and Diffusion Processes in the Mechanisation of Irish Agriculture.
In:
Anniversary Essays: Forty Years of Geography in Maynooth.
National University of Ireland Maynooth, pp. 179-210.
ISBN 9780992746605
Abstract
The modernisation of production and the growth of output in the
agricultural sector in Ireland, as in many other countries, have been
associated with the adoption of many innovations which have
contributed to a very significant decline in labour inputs and its
replacement by mechanisation. In farming the process of mechanisation
can be understood as the adoption of production methods in which
human labour and draught animals are replaced to a high degree by
technology which can result in greater productivity of both agricultural
labour and land. It is part of a wider range of processes which result in a
significant level of structural adjustment in the organisation of the total
economy. Mechanisation facilitates this adjustment and enables the fewer
remaining farmers to achieve higher income levels and an improved
standard of living. However, farmers vary in their ability to respond to
the requirements of this process for a variety of reasons including
economic constraints, demographic factors and in some instances
locational disadvantages. The differential impacts of these factors
between fanners introduces significant temporal and spatial dimensions
into the adoption and diffusion of mechanisation. While there have been
many studies of the spatial structure of agricultural production in Ireland
(Stamp, 1931; Gillmor, 1977, 1987; Homer et al., 1984; Walsh, 1991) and
of the sources of variation in growth rates (Conway, 1975; Cuddy, 1982;
Boyle, 1987), there has been surprisingly little systematic analysis of the
influences on the adoption and diffusion of innovations in Irish
agriculture.
| Item Type: |
Book Section
|
| Additional Information: |
First published in Irish Geography (1992), 25(1), 33-53 |
| Keywords: |
Adoption; Diffusion Processes; Mechanisation; Irish Agriculture; Anniversary Essays; Geography; Maynooth; |
| Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Social Sciences > Geography |
| Item ID: |
5590 |
| Depositing User: |
Prof. Jim Walsh
|
| Date Deposited: |
04 Dec 2014 17:55 |
| Publisher: |
National University of Ireland Maynooth |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| URI: |
|
| Use Licence: |
This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available
here |
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