
Following the Invisible Road Rules in the Field: Using ANT for CTF
Author(s) -
LATHAM AMITY,
MCDONALD JOHN,
REEVES KEIR
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
ethnographic praxis in industry conference proceedings
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1559-8918
pISSN - 1559-890X
DOI - 10.1111/1559-8918.2019.01296
Subject(s) - agriculture , cropping , agency (philosophy) , business , field (mathematics) , tillage , productivity , precision agriculture , agricultural engineering , agroforestry , engineering , geography , economics , environmental science , mathematics , sociology , ecology , economic growth , pure mathematics , social science , archaeology , biology
Australian grain growers look to technologies of farming and cropping systems to maximise their productivity. Zero tillage cropping, variable rate inputs, soil moisture probes, and precision planting are a few practices that farmers may adopt to support their farming practices. To implement cropping technologies, and to achieve the outcomes promoted by the technological innovators, farmers need an alignment of machinery, mobile connectivity, knowledge, skills, farm services support, finance and people on the farm to make it happen. This paper shifts the focus beyond binary and hierarchical notions of humans versus technology and human versus nature, to insider research into the farming practice, alliances, and neighbourly relations to specifically examine how agency makes farmers enact a precision farming technique called controlled traffic farming. Using an actor network approach this paper examines what controlled traffic farming is, and why it makes farmers follow the ‘invisible road rules’ in the field using an actor network approach.