Technologies of Precision Agriculture (PA) are already a reality in crops throughout Brazil, using more and more productive techniques, crucial to ensure the country as the world leader in agriculture. However, studies on the intensity of the use of PA technologies in Brazil and the determiners of their adoption do not exist yet. The main focus of this study was, therefore, to investigate the adoption process and the use of PA technologies in the sugarcane industry in São Paulo state. For that purpose, it used primary data based upon a questionnaire submitted to all enterprises of the sugarcane sector in the state, aiming to figure out not only the adoption level and use of PA technologies in the sugarcane industry, but also to verify the influence of the variables studied on the probability for the adoption of the PA technologies. The conclusions of this study suggest that the percentage for the PA adoption is high in the sugarcane industry of São Paulo and also that the probability to adopt PA technologies is higher in decrescent order of importance in mills/distilleries of national capital, which are part of an export-driven group, of professional management and that use higher percentage of their own resources.
precision agriculture; logit model; sugarcane
