Implications of Digitalisation in Agriculture
The ETH Zurich Agricultural Economics and Policy Group and the World Food System Center recently organised a symposium on implications of digitalisation in agriculture. Topics addressed included policy, economic, and social impacts of applying digital technologies in the farming and food sectors.
More than a hundred guests from various sectors in farming, industry, policy, and academia came together at an evening seminar on 04 September 2019 to address the question of what implications digitalisation brings for agriculture. The ETH Zurich Agricultural Economics and Policy Group and the World Food System Center organized the event.
Discussions at the event focused on how digitalisation can contribute to innovatively addressing grand challenges in the farming sector. For example, production can be made more sustainable, environmental impacts can be mitigated and animal welfare can be increased. In addition, digitalisation can make food production safer and more transparent. There is great economic potential along the whole agricultural value chain. However, successful digitalisation of agriculture cannot be seen as a given. More than technological development is needed. Implementation and impacts also depend on the decisions of farmers, consumers, and companies and on regulatory frameworks. Digitalisation is therefore a cross-cutting topic; it brings not only change to individual farms, but also implies transformations in supply chains and in agricultural policy.
At the seminar, trade-offs among the potential and challenges of digitalisation in agriculture were lively discussed. To kick off, two talks by international experts provided insights into current research and innovations in digital agriculture. Dr. Sjaak Wolfert and Dr. Krijn Poppe from Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands first showed how digital technologies can contribute to solving various sustainability problems in farming and food sectors. Dr. Áine Regan from Teagasc, the Agriculture and Food Development Authority of Ireland, described how research, policy, and innovation can take into account responsibility as they are involved in the transition to greater digitalisation of agriculture.
Download the presentation of Dr. Sjaak Wolfert and Dr. Krijn Poppe Downloadhere (PDF, 3.6 MB)
Download the presentation of Dr. Áine Regan Downloadhere (PDF, 3.2 MB)
Download event flyer Downloadhere (PDF, 488 KB)
We thank our presenting researchers for their input and all that attended for their insightful discussions.
Learn more about the ETH Zurich Agricultural Economics and Policy Group, including their SNF NRP73 project Reconciling innovative farming practices and networks to enable sustainable development of smart Swiss farming systems (InnoFarm) here