Digitalisation of Agriculture: How to align and engage partners to move the industry into precision farming. Case study, Maize farming in Belgium.

Abstract

The world is facing a challenge when it comes to food production and sustainability. Population is increasing, yet the agricultural sector is declining. To meet these demands, the agricultural sector needs to take an innovative approach by using technological innovations to improve food production while reducing environmental impact.

Digitalization of agriculture emphasizes on the future of smart farming by using technology tools such as Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, Big data and artificial intelligence.

Despite the numerous published benefits of PA, study shows that adaptation is very slow. This research sought to find out why adaptation of PA is not as rapid as it was expected and a possible strategy to align the different actors in the agricultural value chain to speed up the adaptation of precision agriculture.

In order to find the challenges that affected the adaptation of PA, I interviewed different players in the agricultural value chain within Belgium. I was not able to interview all representatives due to time and challenges caused by COVID-19.

I found out that challenges which slowed down adaptation of PA were not due to the technologies but business models around the technologies. Some of the challenges were farm data ownership, lack of transparency therefore affecting trust, data structure & compatibility with other systems, data portability, the cost of adopting PA and the lack of support. As a solution, a framework needs to be developed in which all actors can collaborate and co-create value.