A review of social science on digital agriculture, smart farming and agriculture 4.0: New contributions and a future research agenda
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In this paper, the authors present seventeen articles dealing with social, economic and institutional dynamics of precision farming, digital agriculture, smart farming or agriculture 4.0, and reveal new insights on the link between digital agriculture and farm diversity, new economic, business and institutional arrangements both on-farm, in the value chain and food system, and in the innovation system.Abstract:
While there is a lot of literature from a natural or technical sciences perspective on different forms of digitalization in agriculture (big data, internet of things, augmented reality, robotics, sensors, 3D printing, system integration, ubiquitous connectivity, artificial intelligence, digital twins, and blockchain among others), social science researchers have recently started investigating different aspects of digital agriculture in relation to farm production systems, value chains and food systems. This has led to a burgeoning but scattered social science body of literature. There is hence lack of overview of how this field of study is developing, and what are established, emerging, and new themes and topics. This is where this article aims to make a contribution, beyond introducing this special issue which presents seventeen articles dealing with social, economic and institutional dynamics of precision farming, digital agriculture, smart farming or agriculture 4.0. An exploratory literature review shows that five thematic clusters of extant social science literature on digitalization in agriculture can be identified: 1) Adoption, uses and adaptation of digital technologies on farm; 2) Effects of digitalization on farmer identity, farmer skills, and farm work; 3) Power, ownership, privacy and ethics in digitalizing agricultural production systems and value chains; 4) Digitalization and agricultural knowledge and innovation systems (AKIS); and 5) Economics and management of digitalized agricultural production systems and value chains. The main contributions of the special issue articles are mapped against these thematic clusters, revealing new insights on the link between digital agriculture and farm diversity, new economic, business and institutional arrangements both on-farm, in the value chain and food system, and in the innovation system, and emerging ways to ethically govern digital agriculture. Emerging lines of social science enquiry within these thematic clusters are identified and new lines are suggested to create a future research agenda on digital agriculture, smart farming and agriculture 4.0. Also, four potential new thematic social science clusters are also identified, which so far seem weakly developed: 1) Digital agriculture socio-cyber-physical-ecological systems conceptualizations; 2) Digital agriculture policy processes; 3) Digitally enabled agricultural transition pathways; and 4) Global geography of digital agriculture development. This future research agenda provides ample scope for future interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary science on precision farming, digital agriculture, smart farming and agriculture 4.0.read more
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How key-enabling technologies’ regimes influence sociotechnical transitions: The impact of artificial intelligence on decarbonization in the steel industry
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Farm advisors amid the transition to Agriculture 4.0: Professional identity, conceptions of the future and future‐specific competencies
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Robots and transformations of work in farm: a systematic review of the literature and a research agenda
Théo Martin,Pierre Gasselin,Nathalie Hostiou,Gilles Feron,Lucette Laurens,François Purseigle,Guillaume Ollivier +6 more
TL;DR: In this article , a systematic review of work transformations subsequent to the adoption of agricultural robots on the farm is carried out, focusing on four dimensions of work: farm structure and the labor market; work organization; meaning of work; and technical-economic performances.
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Responsible digital agri‐food innovation in Australian and New Zealand public research organisations
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TL;DR: In this article , the authors analyse digital agricultural technologies (agtech) innovation in two public research organisations in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand through the lens of responsible innovation (RI), and how corresponding activities were realized in practice.
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