Strategies Proposition to Overcome the Barriers that Hinder the Implementation of Agricultural 4.0 Technologies: a case study in Agro-Technological Districts (ATDs)

• Grant number: 23/12215-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: March 01, 2024
• End date: February 28, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Interdisciplinary Subjects
• Principal Investigator: Jayme Garcia Arnal Barbedo
• Grantee: Franco da Silveira
• Host Institution: Embrapa Agricultura Digital. Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (EMBRAPA). Ministério da Agricultura, Pecuária e Abastecimento (Brasil). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Agriculture 4.0 comprises different technologies already in operation or under development, such as machine learning, unmanned aerial vehicles, robotics, and artificial intelligence, which significantly benefit all stages and processes of the agricultural production chain. However, not all agriculture 4.0 technologies are adopted in the same way and simultaneously. Many barriers can make it difficult to successfully implement agriculture 4.0 in this sector. In developing countries, discussions about this scenario are less comprehensive and deserve attention. This is the case of Brazil, one of the major players in global agribusiness that has great potential to expand the introduction of agriculture 4.0. The cultural, economic, and political heterogeneity of Brazilian agricultural regions is one of the problems that restricts the uniform acceptance of agriculture 4.0 in the country. In the cases of small and medium-sized rural producers, the difficulties in adopting technologies are even greater. Therefore, it is very important to understand the barriers and identify solutions to overcome them. The recently established Center of Science for Development in Digital Agriculture (CCD-AD/SemeAr) includes a thematic axis that deals with the challenges of implementing agriculture 4.0 in Brazil: Agro-Technological Districts (ATDs) and socioeconomic and environmental impacts. There are plans to carry out actions for diagnosing the current situation in the ATDs areas, as well as for evaluating the impact that the introduction of the technologies will have on the reality of those areas. There is, however, an intermediate step of great importance to maximize those impacts and that was not explicitly planned in the original project, that is, the search for solutions to remove the barriers that impact the adoption of agriculture 4.0 technologies in the ATDs. With the implementation of this postdoctoral fellowship, the objective is to propose strategies to overcome the barriers that hinder the implementation of agriculture 4.0 technologies in ATDs. The contributions of this project will provide a better understanding of Agriculture 4.0 existing in Brazil and point out solutions that can improve its implementation in ATDs.