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Digital Transformation in the Agriculture Sector

  • Digital Transformation
  • DX
  • Internet of Things
  • IoT
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • AI
  • agriculture
  • farming
  • Suruchi Dhingra
This report examines digital transformation (DX) in the Agriculture sector, enabled by the key technology groups that are the focus of Transforma Insights’ research. It focuses on the use of DX from harvest to storage. Digital technologies hold tremendous potential to transform the Agriculture sector by improving the efficiency of farming methods, resulting in better utilisation of resources and energy. The core driver behind rising adoption of digital technologies in this sector is the need for sustainable and consistent production, helping the industry overcome the challenge of high food demand with limited resources (especially water and land), climate change and increasing cost of labour and raw materials.

This report examines digital transformation (DX) in the Agriculture sector, enabled by the key technology groups that are the focus of Transforma Insights’ research. It focuses on the use of DX from harvest to storage.

Digital Transformation potential in Agriculture

Digital technologies hold tremendous potential to transform the Agriculture sector by improving the efficiency of farming methods, resulting in better utilisation of resources and energy. The core driver behind rising adoption of digital technologies in this sector is the need for sustainable and consistent production, helping the industry overcome the challenge of high food demand with limited resources (especially water and land), climate change and increasing cost of labour and raw materials.

Digital transformation in Agriculture incorporates the use of granular monitoring techniques (with sensors), drones, agricultural vehicles and robots to optimise the use of resources (seed, fertilizers, water) and quickly react to threats (weeds, pests, fungi). Most of the DX solutions discussed in this document benefit businesses by improving yields, enhancing the quality of crops, improving farm productivity and reducing production costs (including labour costs). Furthermore, they significantly contribute towards sustainability goals by reducing water usage, food wastage, preventing groundwater contamination, and reducing the amount of fuel used in trips taken by farmers for monitoring fields.

Nine key domains of change in Agriculture

Overall, we have identified nine key domains of change in the Agriculture sector that are enabled by digital transformation. These are discussed in more detail in this document and comprise:

  • Crop Management refers to monitoring of crop, soil and plant conditions via in-field sensors or satellite imagery by collecting and analysing data such as temperature, moisture and fertility.
  • Automatic Irrigation Systems considers automation of irrigation activity based on data collected from Crop Management sensors, smart weather stations, weather reports, and other environmental factors.
  • Livestock Management considers the use of digitally transformative technologies for monitoring the health and location of livestock.
  • Indoor Vertical Farming and Smart Greenhouses includes use of technologies in controlled environments, customised to the vegetation needs in a greenhouse or indoor farms (using hydroponics or aeroponics).
  • Drone Farming refers to the use of drones to enhance various agricultural practices including crop health assessment, irrigation, field analysis, crop spraying and planting.
  • Farm Automation and Robots, all automation solutions (not included elsewhere) used to undertake repetitive labour-intensive tasks performed by farmers, particularly robots used for harvesting, seeding, weeding, and autonomous vehicles such as tractors.
  • Farm Management includes platforms for integration of data collected from all devices and sources for maximising productivity, farm planning and managing operations.
  • Produce Monitoring covers the use of digital transformation technologies in post-harvesting but before processing operations; mainly focussing on quality control & sorting in farm storage.
  • Supply Monitoring handles tracking of input resources such as fertilizers, fuel/diesel, feed (in livestock farming) and water.

Collectively, the activities listed above will bring significant changes to the Agriculture industry.

Transforma Insights Agriculture Key Tech Trends.jpg

Tracking the impact of 11 digital transformation technologies

This report examines digital transformation in the Agriculture sector as enabled by the key technology groups that are the focus of Transforma Insights’ research. These technology groups comprise:

  • 3D Printing & Additive Manufacturing
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Autonomous Robotic Systems
  • Data Sharing
  • Distributed Ledger
  • Edge Computing
  • Future Technologies
  • Human Machine Interface
  • Hyperconnectivity
  • Internet of Things (IoT)
  • Product Lifecycle Management
  • Robotic Process Automation

Accordingly, the aim of this document is not to chart the future direction of the agriculture industry, but to highlight key areas of change enabled by new and emerging technologies. The bulk of this report is concerned with discussion of these key areas of change, including an overview of each area, together with analysis of the business impact, and the complexity, timings and risk associated with each area. We also identify key enabling technologies for each area (from the list above) and provide summary details of illustrative case studies that are available in Transforma Insights Best Practice & Vendor Selection database.

The purpose of the document is two-fold. Firstly, from the perspective of a grower, farming-cooperative or a consumer products company involved in the agriculture industry, the document highlights new and emerging changes that can be expected to impact the industry in the next few years. Secondly, from the perspective of potential vendors for the agriculture industry, it highlights key emerging areas of opportunity to sell new products, services, and solutions to the industry. Our analysis of the key technologies that enable each of the identified areas of digital transformation will help vendors of horizontal (technology-specific) capabilities to identify the contexts in which they may secure new business from the Agriculture sector.

Specific exclusions from the scope of this report include:

  • Blockchain for food transparency, as this is relevant to the supply chains of all sectors, not just agriculture.
  • Digital solutions supporting fleet management for agriculture logistics.
  • Training assistance solutions such as AR and VR-based training programs.

The analysis contained in this report draws significantly on Transforma Insights’ Best Practice & Vendor Selection Database and analysis of the Agriculture sector Case Studies that are part of the database included in this report.

  • Aerofarms
  • Agbot
  • Agrolabs
  • AgroLog
  • Agworld
  • Allflex Livestock Intelligence
  • AllMeteo
  • Apollo Agriculture
  • Arable
  • Archer-Daniels-Midland Company
  • Autogrow
  • Bayer
  • Bear Flag Robotics
  • Bin-Sense
  • BinSentry
  • Cargill
  • Cenex Harvest States
  • Cropin
  • Digitanimal
  • DJI
  • Electronic Sensors
  • Farmbrite
  • FFRobotics
  • HydroPoint
  • John Deere
  • Koidra
  • Land O'Lakes
  • Libelium
  • Microsoft
  • Midnight Robotics
  • myFood
  • Plenty
  • Ripe Robotics
  • Sencrop
  • Sensoterra
  • Syngenta
  • TeleSense
  • XAG
      • Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing