FAO Agricultural Development Economics Policy Brief, No. 54.

The adoption of digital automation technologies in agriculture has been slow despite its potential to enhance the precision of agricultural operations, improve working conditions, and address environmental challenges, while building resilience to shocks and stresses. Most technologies are still relatively new and costly, especially for low- and middle-income countries, where poor connectivity and energy supply, and limited human capacity further hinder adoption. Incentivizing uptake requires creating a conducive business environment and suiting technologies to local conditions, especially for small-scale agriculture.

The findings in this brief have been adapted from the FAO report The State of Food and Agriculture 2022 – Leveraging automation in agriculture for transforming agrifood systems and from the FAO Agricultural Development Economics Working Paper 22-10 Economics of adoption for digital automated technologies in agriculture.