The role of needs, benefits and difficulties in the adoption of agriculture 4.0 solutions

Climate change, rising world population and biodiversity threats as well as power unbalances, shrinking margins and global competition are only some of the challenges that agriculture has to face in the upcoming years. New solutions belonging to the Agriculture 4.0 paradigm might prove to be an effective way to address these issues. However, in order for them to have an impact, besides being technically feasible, farmers must decide to invest in them and to actually use these solutions in their fields. Economic reasons might coexist along with other objectives and the solutions meant to satisfy certain needs might fail to do so according to farmers’ perceptions. In order to clarify the needs beneath the choice to invest in certain Agriculture 4.0 solutions and the benefits and difficulties actually faced while using them, a survey has been conducted involving more than 200 farms. The data show that available solutions tend to satisfy farmers’ needs, however additional efforts need to be put in place to address some difficulties that still characterise these technologies, such as interoperability, connectivity and competences.