The rise of digital agriculture
Over the past 30 years, digital technology has reshaped industries like logistics, insurance, healthcare, and retail. Instant and unrestricted access to data from diverse sources enables businesses to respond to — and even predict — demand, efficiently guiding the allocation of resources. This dynamic capability, known as decision intelligence, has become essential in a world
where unpredictability is the new norm. So why has our crucial food supply sector struggled to capitalise on this transformation? Agricultural yields have plateaued since the 1990s, and more farms are going out of business than ever before. In this piece, I will explore both the opportunities for digital adoption in modern agriculture and the barriers that have slowed its progress.
Digital Agriculture, Precision Agriculture, or AgTech is often highlighted as a key area where AI can make a positive impact. Yet, despite the excitement, there are few success stories; in fact, there’s a “graveyard” of innovative brands like Hummingbird, Small Robot Company, and MineralAI that, despite clear applications, struggled to secure necessary traction in the sector. The farming sector’s “inertia to change” is often blamed, with farms painted as isolated landscapes, resistant to innovation or fresh ideas. But this couldn’t be further from the truth. Consider the challenges farming has weathered: acute labour shortages, soaring input costs, stifling regulation, diminishing subsidies—all while receiving a shrinking share of the retail price of their produce. Farmers are sharp, resourceful businesswomen who must focus on return on investment for any new expense. The real issue is that the sector lacks a fertile ecosystem that would allow new entrants to meet strict cost-benefit targets. Poor rural connectivity forces sensor providers to waste resources on solving communication issues. Additionally, siloed machinery protocols prevent retrofitting and add-on solutions, leading to duplicated costs. If the government truly recognised the lost potential here, prioritising nationalised connectivity and standardised interoperability would be top of the agenda.
Agriculture is one of the few areas where trickle-down economics truly works in practice. Technologies initially developed for plant breeding research transition into horticultural applications and eventually scale into broader arable farming solutions. With each stage, the price point decreases by an order of magnitude, while the market size grows exponentially. This pathway is enabled by the UK’s world-leading research-to-commercialisation framework, supported by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) through Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and Innovate UK sector collaborations. The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs’ (DEFRA) renewed focus on advancing technology readiness has raised expectations, bringing funded pilots closer to farmers and nearer to commercial viability. This model is envied by many export markets. Recognising the need for specialisation, open innovation has become the dominant approach—particularly for SMEs—allowing competitive scale-ups to partner strategically to tackle larger challenges, minimising the resource duplication that has hampered so many efforts in the past.
Significant distractions persist in the future landscape of our food supply, such as a narrow focus on carbon emissions. A more comprehensive approach would frame this as a broader sustainability challenge, one that integrates ethical, economic, and even nutritional considerations to create a truly improved model. Encouragingly, there is a renewed focus on practical Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investments and food sovereignty, creating an active environment to reconnect the public with their food system. The new generation of farmers and agricultural engineers brings a revitalised commitment to sustainable innovation. Combined with the resource-saving precision of advanced artificial intelligence, this focus promises to drive meaningful progress in Digital Agriculture, reshaping the future of our food supply.
