Agriculture

Climate change, biodiversity loss, the COVID-19 pandemic and the war of aggression on Ukraine – the qualitative and quantitative strain on our agricultural land and food has been increasingly intensified worldwide.

Globally, up to 828 million people are facing hunger daily. In order to feed the growing world population within planetary boundaries, it is essential to transform our agricultural and food systems. Crises affecting agriculture, and smallholder farmers in particular, need to be better understood, communicated and anticipated in order to increase the resilience of agricultural systems and to mitigate shocks as best as possible. The digitalisation of agriculture has the potential to support this transformation at the necessary pace, while making it sustainable and inclusive. Therefore, the opportunities of digital transformation in the agricultural sector are of greater importance than ever before.

Digital applications can help increase agricultural productivity, conserve natural resources and biodiversity, and thus improve the resilience of agricultural systems. Likewise, the digitalisation of the agricultural sector can create attractive jobs and prospects, especially for young people and women along the entire value chain.

However, several areas of rapid digital transformation remain of concern. Limited access to technology, connectivity and high mobile data costs remain constraints to harnessing the potential of digital solutions for smallholder farmers. There is often a lack of digital infrastructure and digital skills (e-literacy and e-skills) to enable smallholder farmers to use digital applications independently.

The big challenge is to design and use digital systems and applications in a way that contributes to inclusive, greener, more efficient and resilient agricultural and food systems.