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      Facts and fears that limit digital transformation in farming: Exploring barriers to the outreach of wireless sensor networks in Southwest Iran

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          Abstract

          Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are considered part of an environmentally friendly technology leading to more timely and cost-effective production and management of farms. Despite the potential of WSNs to agricultural development in the global South, outreach is still very limited, also in Iran. Therefore, in order to facilitate the adoption of WSNs, it is necessary to identify the factors influencing and challenging the adoption of this technology. This exploratory study uses a qualitative approach to identify the main barriers WSN outreach is facing. In the results, we distinguish facts that we define as issues or barriers that were identified by others from fears that are not supported by evidence so far, at the level of the farmers, the government actors as well as the technology itself. Facts include communication barriers such as internet access, farmers’ knowledge levels and rigidity to change as well as the government’s top-down organisation of the extension programme and support levels. Fears are mainly expressed on the technology itself and relate to costs, a lack of access, the complexity of use and reliability of the data. We provide a nuanced view of how fears need to be acknowledged and facts are to be tackled.

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            Energy-Efficient Wireless Sensor Networks for Precision Agriculture: A Review

            Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) can be used in agriculture to provide farmers with a large amount of information. Precision agriculture (PA) is a management strategy that employs information technology to improve quality and production. Utilizing wireless sensor technologies and management tools can lead to a highly effective, green agriculture. Based on PA management, the same routine to a crop regardless of site environments can be avoided. From several perspectives, field management can improve PA, including the provision of adequate nutrients for crops and the wastage of pesticides for the effective control of weeds, pests, and diseases. This review outlines the recent applications of WSNs in agriculture research as well as classifies and compares various wireless communication protocols, the taxonomy of energy-efficient and energy harvesting techniques for WSNs that can be used in agricultural monitoring systems, and comparison between early research works on agriculture-based WSNs. The challenges and limitations of WSNs in the agricultural domain are explored, and several power reduction and agricultural management techniques for long-term monitoring are highlighted. These approaches may also increase the number of opportunities for processing Internet of Things (IoT) data.
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              QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY IN SOCIAL SCIENCES AND RELATED SUBJECTS

              This literature review paper discusses the proper use of qualitative research methodology to discuss several aspects of the research for the improvement of the skill of the readers. During the last few decades, the use of qualitative research has been increased in many institutions. It can be used to explore several areas of human behavior for the development of organizations. The purpose of this study is to provide inspirations to the new researchers for the development of their qualitative articles. The paper analyzes the design of qualitative research giving some methodological suggestions to make it explicable to the reader. In this paper an attempt has been taken to study the background of the qualitative research methodologyin social sciences and some other related subjects, along with the importance, and main features of the study.  
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: Data curationRole: Formal analysisRole: InvestigationRole: MethodologyRole: Writing – original draft
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: SupervisionRole: ValidationRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: SupervisionRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: ValidationRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: Editor
                Journal
                PLoS One
                PLoS One
                plos
                PLOS ONE
                Public Library of Science (San Francisco, CA USA )
                1932-6203
                16 December 2022
                2022
                : 17
                : 12
                : e0279009
                Affiliations
                [1 ] Department of Agricultural Economics, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
                [2 ] Department of Telecommunications and Information Processing, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
                [3 ] Department of Economics and Rural Development, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liège, Gembloux, Belgium
                [4 ] Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
                [5 ] Faculty of Environmental Science and Engineering, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
                Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University, TURKEY
                Author notes

                Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

                Author information
                https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4732-569X
                Article
                PONE-D-21-39581
                10.1371/journal.pone.0279009
                9757575
                36525439
                9fe74b0f-08ac-4707-b0c2-eaf1bf5b0a46
                © 2022 Taheri et al

                This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

                History
                : 23 December 2021
                : 28 November 2022
                Page count
                Figures: 4, Tables: 5, Pages: 23
                Funding
                Funded by: funder-id http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100004385, Universiteit Gent;
                Award ID: 01D03418
                Award Recipient :
                This research was financially supported by the Ghent University Special Research Fund (BOF) (code: 01D03418). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
                Categories
                Research Article
                Computer and Information Sciences
                Network Analysis
                Signaling Networks
                Wireless Sensor Networks
                People and Places
                Population Groupings
                Professions
                Agricultural Workers
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Agriculture
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Agriculture
                Agricultural Methods
                Agricultural Irrigation
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Agriculture
                Farms
                People and Places
                Geographical Locations
                Asia
                Iran
                Engineering and Technology
                Telecommunications
                Research and Analysis Methods
                Research Design
                Qualitative Studies
                Custom metadata
                All relevant data are within the paper and Supporting Information file. Regarding the raw data file of focus group discussion and interviews, unfortunately, the recorded voices and notes taken during the interviews cannot be made publicly available as they contain sensitive and confidential data, the specific names of the organizations and/or political persons, which may lead to further contradictions or ethical issues. Further, the verbal consent for the study stated that “only the study team members will have access to the transcripts." Thus, we are not permitted to share recordings and transcripts of the focus group discussions and interviews.

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