Thematics & GTAIM > Agriculture and digital

Agriculture and digital

Digitalization offers promising prospects for making agriculture more efficient, sustainable, and resilient, transforming food production through innovations such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, Cloud Computing, and Blockchain (Birner et al ., 2020; Trendov et al., 2019). These advances are changing the agri-food value chain, impacting food production, processing, transport, and consumption (Fielke et al., 2020; Klerkx & Rose, 2020; Wolfert et al., 2017).

Big data analytics and IoT tools enable real-time collection and analysis of agricultural data, providing farmers and value chain actors with crucial insights for decision-making and productivity improvement (Lin et al., 2020; Kamble et al., 2020). Artificial intelligence-based technologies contribute to advanced crop management, disease detection, automated decision-making, and sustainable management of natural resources (Mohr & Kühl, 2021). Blockchain improves food traceability, reduces waste, and strengthens transparency (FAO, 2020; Lezoche et al., 2020; Trendov et al., 2019). Mobile applications and internet platforms facilitate farmers' access to financial resources, new markets, and technical assistance services (Michels et al., 2020; World Bank, 2017).

However, digitalization carries risks, especially for small farmers. The persistent digital divide, resulting from inequalities in access, skills, and capabilities, creates barriers to social inclusion. Costs, poor infrastructure, and unequal access hinder the adoption of digital technologies by farmers in developing economies (FAO, 2020). Additionally, digitalization may accentuate gender inequalities by requiring more skilled labor, thereby widening the gender gap in rural areas (Schroeder et al., 2021). Questions of data ownership remain unclear, highlighting a lack of farmer influence over the use of their data (Soma & Nuckchady, 2021; Wiseman et al., 2019).

While the benefits of digital technologies are clear, the slow adoption of digital technologies in the agriculture sector, according to the McKinsey Digitalization Index, highlights the need to overcome challenges related to investment, adoption, and recruitment. specialized personnel (McKinsey & Company, 2015; Gandhi et al., 2016). Digital transitions can be slow, requiring careful assessment and proper management to maximize potential benefits while mitigating associated risks.

The "Agriculture and Digital" track wishes to broaden on the one hand the theme of artificial intelligence to that of digital technology, to explore the impacts of the "marriage" between contemporary agriculture and digital technologies, and on the other hand the question of the conference: working with, despite or without digital technology in agriculture?

If the AIM conference is renowned for hosting work from a wide variety of disciplines, this track illustrates it.

Among the themes connected to this question, we can cite a non-exhaustive list:

•      Smart Agriculture
•      IoT and Agricultural Connectivity
•      Blockchain in Agriculture
•      Digital Sustainability in Agriculture
•      Agricultural Information Systems
•      Digital transformation and agricultural practices
•      Organizational dimensions of agricultural digital transformation
•      Value Chain and Value Distribution in the agricultural sector
•      Data and agriculture
•      Ethics and digital agriculture
•      Technology Assessment
•      Data contributions for accounting, environmental or food assessments

Track managers:

Karine Gauche - Montpellier Agro Institute (karine.gauche@supagro.fr)

Isabelle Bourdon – University of Montpellier (Isabelle.bourdon@umontpellier.fr)