what are the priority research questions for digital agriculture

What are the Priority Research Questions for Digital Agriculture?

Julie Ingram * , Damian Maye, Clive Bailye, AP Barnes , Christopher Bear, Matthew Bell, David Cutress, Lynfa Davies, Auvikki Boon de, Liz Dinnie, Julian Gairdner, Caitlin Hafferty, Lewis Holloway, Daniel R. Kindred, David Kirby, Bethany Leake, Louise Manning, Ben Marchant, Aimee Morse, Simon Oxley Martin Phillips, Aine Regan, Karen Rial-Lovera, David C. Rose, Juliette Schillings, Fiona Williams, Hefin Williams, Lucy Wilson Show 8 more Show less

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What are the priority research questions for digital agriculture?

Julie Ingram, Damian Maye, Clive Bailye, Andrew Barnes, Christopher Bear, Matthew Bell , David Cutress, Lynfa Daviews, Auvikki de boon, Liz Dinnie, Julian Gairdner, Caitlin Hafferty, Lewis Holloway, Daniel Kindred, David Kirby, Bethany Leake, Louise Manning, Ben Marchant, Aimee Morse, Simon Oxley Martin Philips, Áine Regan, Karen Rial-Lovera, David C. Rose, Juliette Schillings, Hefin Williams, Lucy Wilson Show 7 more Show less

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What are the Priority Research Questions for Digital Agriculture?

Ingram, Julie , Maye, D , Bailye, C , Barnes, A , Bear, C , Bell, M , Cutress, D , Davies, L , de Boon, A , Dinnie, L , Gairdner, J , Hafferty, C , Holloway, L , Kindred, D , Kirby, D , Leake, B , Manning, Louise , Marchant, B , Morse, A , Oxley, S , Phillips, M , Regan, A , Rial-lovera, Karen , Rose, David Christian , Schilling, J , Williams, F , Williams, H and Wilson, L (2022) What are the Priority Research Questions for Digital Agriculture? Land Use Policy. ISSN 0264-8377

There is a need to identify key existing and emerging issues relevant to digitalisation in agricultural production that would benefit from a stronger evidence base and help steer policy formulation. To address this, a prioritisation exercise was undertaken to identify priority research questions concerning digital agriculture in the UK, but with a view to also informing international contexts. The prioritisation exercise uses an established and effective participatory methodology for capturing and ordering a wide range of views. The method involves identifying a large number of participants and eliciting an initial long list of research questions which is reduced and refined in subsequent voting stages to select the top priorities by theme. Participants were selected using purposive sampling and snowballing to represent a number of sectors, organisations, companies and disciplines across the UK. They were each invited to submit up to 10 questions according to certain criteria, and this resulted in 195 questions from a range of 40 participants (largely from England with some representation from Scotland and Wales). Preliminary analysis and clustering of these questions through iterative analysis identified seven themes as follows: data governance; data management; enabling use of data and technologies; understanding benefits and uptake of data and technologies; optimising data and technologies for performance; impacts of digital agriculture; and new collaborative arrangements. Subsequent stages of voting, using an online ranking exercise and a participant workshop for in-depth discussion, refined the questions to a total of 27 priority research questions categorised into 15 gold, 7 silver and 5 bronze, across the 7 themes. The questions significantly enrich and extend previous clustering and agenda setting using literature sources, and provide a range of new perspectives. The analysis highlights the interconnectedness of themes and questions, and proposes two nexus for future research: the different dimensions of value, and the social and institutional arrangements to support digitalisation in agriculture. These emphasise the importance of interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity, and the need to tackle the binary nature of current analytical frames. These new insights are equally relevant to contexts outside the UK. This paper highlights the need for research actions to inform policy, not only instrumentally by strengthening the evidence base, but also conceptually, to prompt new thinking. To our knowledge this methodology has not been previously applied to this topic.

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What are the priority research questions for digital agriculture?

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• Ingram, Julie
• Maye, Damian
• Bailye, Clive
• Barnes, Andrew
• Bear, Christopher
• Bell, Matthew
• Cutress, David
• Davies, Lynfa
• de Boon, Auvikki
• Dinnie, Liz
• Gairdner, Julian
• Hafferty, Caitlin
• Holloway, Lewis
• Kindred, Daniel
• Kirby, David
• Leake, Bethany
• Manning, Louise
• Marchant, Ben
• Morse, Aimee
• Oxley, Simon
• Phillips, Martin
• Regan, Áine
• Rial-Lovera, Karen
• Rose, David C.
• Schillings, Juliette
• Williams, Fiona
• Williams, Hefin
• Wilson, Lucy

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What are the priority research questions for digital agriculture?

Highlights • Policy on digital agriculture requires a stronger evidence base. • A prioritisation exercise was conducted in UK to identify priority research questions. • 195 questions from a range of participants were clustered into seven themes. • 27 priority questions (15 gold, 7 silver and 5 bronze) were identified. • The questions provide a research framework to steer policy, both in UK and beyond.

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Why a science-based strategy is key in Africa’s agricultural transformation

Across Africa, science-based agricultural strategies are paying dividends to farmers and development goals. Image:  REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya

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• While the continent is developing fast, Africa risks not meeting its Sustainable Development Goals, especially with regards to hunger and poverty reduction.
• At the intersection of these two challenges, a science-based agricultural strategy can reduce poverty and hunger.
• Soil restoration, targeted investments in research, technology and tailored fertilizer formulations all play a role in a science-based agricultural strategy.

We are getting close to the 2030 deadline when Africa, like the rest of the world, should have achieved many, if not all, of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. But with just six years left, the African continent finds itself significantly off-track for many of the targets, particularly those relating to the reduction of hunger and poverty .

To reignite the momentum towards achieving these vital goals, urgent action for agricultural transformation is required. Indeed, agriculture is the backbone of Africa's economy, where, according to the International Labour Organization , it contributes nearly one third of the GDP, and employs over 60% of the workforce. It is also the sector where Africa has a significant advantage over other continents. Africa has abundant resource availability, a year-round climate that favours agricultural production, vast tracts of unused arable land and the world's youngest population — more than half of the people in the continent will be under 25 years of age by 2050, as per data from the World Bank . This highlights the challenge posed by Africa’s rapid population growth, which is projected to increase from 1 billion today to 1.7 billion in 2020 and 2.4 billion by 2050.

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Yet despite these inherent strengths, progress towards the achievement of agricultural sustainability for the continent has been slow, with food security remaining a key threat and goal. Africa currently imports $55 billion of food annually, and without improvements in agricultural productivity, this figure is projected to double to $110 billion in 2030 . Challenges such as deforestation, water scarcity, soil degradation and rising temperatures continue to threaten the continent's agricultural productivity. Recent projections by the Centre for Global Development indicate an alarming 18% decline in yields by 2050 going by the business-as-usual approach. A report by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) paints an even more grim picture, suggesting an 80% reduction in staple crop yields across eight sub-Saharan African countries over a similar timeframe.

To address these pressing challenges and unlock Africa's agricultural potential, a concerted effort to transition toward science-based agricultural practices is required. This involves actions and investments aimed at leveraging the latest scientific research and technologies to optimize crop yields while minimizing environmental impact.

Soil, fertilizer and research: science-based strategies in action

One critical imperative for enhancing agricultural productivity is through the restoration of the continent's lost soil fertility. Years of cultivation with minimal replenishment have left Africa's agricultural land severely depleted. Notably, research by the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture shows that the current soil degradation rates in Africa are up to 100 times higher than the soil's natural regeneration rate. This has left farmers to suffer a widening crop yield gap, estimated to cost the continent an annual loss of $68 billion and severely weakening Africa’s ability to feed itself.

For rapid restoration, an increase in the application of fertilizer formulations that are tailored to suit the diverse soil conditions and crop varieties in the continent is a minimum imperative. The direction to this objective was established at the African leaders meeting at the Africa Fertilizer and Soil Health Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, earlier this month, where at least 33 African governments committed to accelerating action towards restoring their countries’ soil health. The Nairobi Declaration , which was ratified at the summit, recognized the central role of customized fertilizers in maximizing the output of Africa's soils. The summit highlighted a key fact: while the average global fertilizer consumption is about 135 kg/ha, Africa’s average is only 18kg/ha, falling short of the target of 50kg/ha set in the Abuja Declaration in 2006. Meanwhile, investments in other soil health management practices, such as conservation agriculture and organic matter restoration, continue to be instrumental in the gradual mitigation of the effects of soil degradation and nutrient depletion, thereby significantly boosting long-term agricultural productivity. Healthier soils also combat climate change, both by absorbing large quantities of carbon from the atmosphere and reducing pressure to convert forests to agriculture.

Science-based strategies already underway across Africa

Further success can be achieved by adopting and scaling up proven interventions, including targeted investments in research, technology and extension services. Several African countries, including Ethiopia, Ghana and Tanzania, have already demonstrated the transformative potential of climate-and-nature-positive farming techniques in driving up agricultural productivity. In Ethiopia, the findings of a study published in the Agronomy Journal indicate that the national annual production of teff has increased by 113%, maize by 9.8%, sorghum by 4.6% and wheat by 9.4% over the last decade. In Ghana, the 2023 aggregate cereal production was estimated by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization to reach 5.3 million tonnes, 4% above the previous year's level and 18% above the five‑year average. Tanzania, on the other hand, has been increasing its maize production year-on-year with projections of a 36% increase in its exportable surplus during marketing year 2023-2024, according to USAID . These figures illustrate only the beginnings of what needs to be achieved. With current yields across Africa at less than 25% of their potential, there is immense scope to close this yield gap, transforming Africa into an agricultural force not only capable of feeding itself but also becoming a significant contributor to global food security.

However, to achieve accelerated continent-wide growth, it's imperative to foster collaborative efforts driven by the south-south cooperation for a concerted bid focused on transforming the continent into a dynamic, science-based agricultural powerhouse. Such collaboration is important for knowledge-sharing and driving the adoption of innovative technologies, but its success hinges on full participation from all stakeholders, including governments, the private sector, development partners and the scientific community.

By leveraging the collective expertise and resources of nations across the southern hemisphere, we can forge a sustainable path towards agricultural development that not only boosts productivity and ensures food security for future generations, but also paves the way for economic prosperity and social advancement across the continent.

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In the Philippines, stakeholders are charting the future of digital agriculture

• News & Events

Policymakers, scientists, technology experts, and farmers convened to contextualize the current landscape, identify barriers and opportunities, and chart the future of digital agriculture in the Philippines.

LOS BAÑOS, Philippines (29 May 2024) - The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) headquarters in Los Baños, Laguna became a hub of digital agricultural innovation as it hosted the Philippine leg of the highly anticipated ICTforAg 2024. This year’s theme, “Localizing Impact through Inclusion, Inspiration, and Innovation,” underscored the need to tailor digital solutions to local agricultural landscapes' unique challenges and opportunities. 

Co-hosted by the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) and the Department of Agriculture Agricultural Training Institute (DA-ATI), ICTforAg kicked off with an opening program where Dr. Yvonne Pinto, IRRI Director General warmly welcomed the participants, and highlighted IRRI’s commitment to driving digital innovation in the sector “Together, we are leveraging information and communication technologies to drive transformative change in the agriculture sector,” she stated.

The event, attended by a diverse mix of policymakers, researchers, farmers, and technology enthusiasts, showcased the intersection of agriculture and technology in the Philippines. An exhibit viewing session also commenced where attendees explored cutting-edge technologies and initiatives that promise to transform agriculture.

The keynote address, delivered by Engr. Christopher Morales, DA Undersecretary for Rice Industry Development, discussed the government’s efforts to integrate digital tools into rice farming practices.

“As we look to the future, we envision a Philippine agriculture sector where digital technologies are a cornerstone of our national growth. However, this journey cannot be without challenges, and we must address issues such as digital literacy among farmers, infrastructure limitations, and data security,” said Usec. Christopher Morales.

In the face of climate change and fluctuating market prices, a shift to a more digital landscape in the agriculture sector can highly benefit farmers. In the Philippines, high labor costs are key factors in the country's lower rice production efficiency. To remain competitive, farmers can adopt ICT tools such as satellite remote sensing, drone mapping, and digital literacy programs. These technologies can boost yields, enhance productivity, and ensure food security.

Through several breakout sessions and plenary talks, ICTforAg delved into these various innovative projects and programs revolutionizing agriculture in the Philippines. Topics like linking producers and consumers through digital platforms, data-driven decision-making, and the digital agriculture landscape in the Philippines, highlighting tools like D4AgPH and the Global Market Intelligence Platform (GloMIP) , showcased innovative applications of precision spraying using vision-based velocity estimation.

Other notable projects were also discussed such as Project SARAI , which utilizes satellite remote sensing to provide critical data for crop estimation and yield prediction, enabling local government units to monitor agricultural areas efficiently. 

Social startups like Kita Agritech and GoEdenPH also talked about ways to bridge the digital divide by offering AI-driven crop models, financial literacy education, and creating the largest online agricultural supply platform, fostering trust and digital adoption among farmers. 

Innovative approaches in urban farming and precision agriculture were also highlighted, with SIGLA project’s indoor vertical farming with solar-powered modular farms, as well as drone technologies, revolutionizing pineapple and rice farming, with projects like Del Monte Philippines' drone mapping platforms and Drones4Rice . 

These technological advancements, combined with robust training programs and multi-stakeholder cooperations, position the Philippines to achieve greater agricultural resilience, productivity, and food security. “As we explore innovative solutions, it is essential that these technologies are not only sustainable but also inclusive. Together, we can forge pathways that will ensure that these advancements in agricultural technology leave no one behind,” said UPLB Chancellor Jose V. Camacho, Jr.

The ICTforAg in Los Baños showcased the future of agri-tech in the Philippines, emphasizing the continuous innovation that poses a potential transformation of the country's agricultural landscape. The discussions throughout the event emphasize the crucial expansion and the impact of these advancements on the future of agriculture, especially for farmers. As Assistant Director of DA-ATI Antonieta J. Arceo aptly stated, “ICT is not just about improving yields and profits, but also about empowering our farmers, preserving our environment, and ensuring food security for future generations.”