The future of agriculture : Creating conditions for a more sustainable agriculture sector with the help of data and connectivity

Abstract: The food production rate is required to increase in order to meet the ever-increasing world population. At the same time, this needs to be done in a sustainable manner as the agriculture sector today is responsible for a substantial part of the annual carbon dioxide emissions associated with human activities. In this study, eight farmers in the Swedish agricultural sector whose businesses are primarily based on cultivation and crop production, were interviewed. This to get an understanding of farmers ́ view on connectivity and data, and how this could enable a more productive and sustainable sector in the future.  The study has identified future scenarios that have the potential of contributing to a sustainable development of the sector which are enabled by data and a more connected agriculture sector. One scenario is about fleets of small, connected autonomous agricultural units enabling the electrification transformation of the sector. This will allow for small-scale farms focusing on quality to have great positive impact on the food supply and the sustainability development of the sector. A second scenario is to, with the help of data, make it easier to establish a true consumer value for sustainable products or those of good quality and thereby enable consumers to budget their environmental impact related to food from arable land. In order for this to become feasible a third scenario is related to the agricultural ecosystem which needs to come together and find solutions for data management, creating systems for data handling and analytics to be used both by the farmers and decision makers. With this in place a fourth scenario will be feasible where laws, regulations, and subsidies of today could transform from a generic approach into a more area-based system taking local conditions, determined by data, from individual farms into consideration. There are few contradictions between sustainability and profitability from a farmer ́s point of view and with the help of data and a more connected agriculture, the sector could develop in a positive direction and increase the food production in a sustainable manner.