The digitalisation of agriculture
A literature review and emerging policy issues
Digitalisation offers the potential to help address the productivity, sustainability
and resilience challenges facing agriculture. Evidence on the adoption and impacts
of digital agriculture in OECD countries from national surveys and the literature
indicates broad use of digital technologies in row crop farms, but less evidence is
available on uptake for livestock and speciality crops. Common barriers to adoption
include costs (up-front investment and recurring maintenance expenses), relevance
and limited use cases, user-friendliness, high operator skill requirements, mistrust
of algorithms, and technological risk. National governments have an important role
in addressing bottlenecks to adoption, such as by ensuring better information about
costs and benefits of various technologies (including intangible benefits such as
quality of life improvements); investing in human capital; ensuring appropriate incentives
for innovation; serving as knowledge brokers and facilitators of data-sharing to spur
inclusive, secure and representative data ecosystems; and promoting competitive markets.
Published on April 13, 2022
In series:OECD Food, Agriculture and Fisheries Papersview more titles