Transforming agriculture with digital automation
Policy brief
Description
“Transforming agriculture with digital automation” is a policy brief designed to outline the state of digital automation technologies in agriculture and their potential to transform agrifood systems. The brief notes that digital automation technologies have great potential to enhance the precision of agricultural operations, improve working conditions, and address environmental challenges. It explains that the world is in the early stages of a wave of automation that forms the backbone of precision agriculture. Such early development supports more efficient, site-specific farm management and improved productivity. The resource highlights that these technologies can mitigate risk and improve farmers’ wellbeing while enabling producers to apply inputs where and when needed, thus maximising resource-use efficiency, saving costs and reducing negative environmental impacts.
Technology
The resource focuses on robotics, IoT devices, sensors, drones, artificial intelligence, digital farm management systems, and advanced automation tools used across crops, livestock, and aquaculture systems.
Target
The resource serves small-scale producers, medium and large farms as beneficiaries, while policymakers, agricultural service providers, researchers, and rural communities can effectively use the document for research and project management purposes. As of December 205, the publication has received 394 downloads.
Business model
The resource is publicly available and free of charge as part of FAO’s Agricultural Development Economics Policy Brief series, supporting access to evidence-based digital agriculture analysis for governments, researchers and development partners.
Impact
The brief recommends that governments play a central role in enabling digital automation by investing in electricity, connectivity, human capacity, transparent data policies, and applied research.
Four Betters
Better production
Better environment
Better life
