Journal of Agricultural Machinery Engineering ISSN:2799-8673(Print) 2799-8819(Online) 농업기계공학

Purpose: This study analyzed differences in the perceived importance of sustainable agriculture evaluation factors according to the occupational positions and fields of expertise of smart agriculture experts, to support the development of an integrated evaluation framework. Methods: Survey data were collected from 254 experts and agricultural stakeholders. The evaluation framework comprised six upper-level factors and 24 sub-indicators. Respondents were classified by occupational position and field of expertise. Group differences were examined using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), followed by Tukey’s honestly significant difference (HSD) test. Effect sizes were assessed using eta squared (η²). Results: Occupational position had little influence on the perceived importance of the upper-level factors, with a significant difference observed only for governance factors (p<0.05). In contrast, field of expertise significantly affected five of the six upper-level factors (p<0.001). Environmental sustainability showed the largest effect size (η²=0.209), followed by governance (η²=0.171), social sustainability (η²=0.154), and technological sustainability (η²=0.141). Among the 24 sub-indicators, 20 showed significant differences by field of expertise. Carbon emission reduction (η²=0.168), pesticide use reduction (η²=0.155), and agricultural data platform establishment (η²=0.141) exhibited the largest effect sizes. Conclusions: Perceived importance differed more by field of expertise than by occupational position. These findings support multidisciplinary approaches to sustainable agriculture evaluation.