Browsing by Subject "Digital farming technologies"

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The role of digital technologies to support sustainability management in agriculture
(2025) Weber, Rolf; Lewandowski, Iris
Agriculture causes many environmental problems in the production of food. In addition to the emissions that the agricultural sector emits in the upstream and downstream value chains, the use of plant protection products to increase yields also contributes to the decline in biodiversity. Consumer demands for more sustainable food production are increasing and stricter regulations are also being implemented politically to increase sustainability in European and German agriculture. To achieve this goal, many different assessment tools have been developed to measure and evaluate sustainability in agriculture. In addition to its role in the respective tools, digitization is also becoming increasingly important in food production. The possibilities of digital technologies in agriculture are multifaceted and can help to support farmers in managing their farms. Furthermore, digitization will also have an important impact on sustainability management. Digitization can help to increase the output:input ratio of farm inputs. Improving the efficiency of resource use has an impact on sustainability. However, tools for assessing sustainability in agriculture cannot show whether the use of digital technologies creates synergies or trade-offs. The sustainability tools also have limitations when it comes to assessing biodiversity, as the assessment takes place retrospectively on the one hand and across farms on the other. An algorithm that supports farmers in the field-specific biodiversity assessment before the cultivation season is still missing. Whether farmers are willing to accept the use of digital technologies to support decision-making has not yet been researched. Without the willingness of farmers to invest in digital technologies, the associated efficiency gains will remain unused and thus slow down the development towards a more sustainable agriculture. The aim of this work is to show how sustainability management in agriculture can be improved in food production with the support of digital technologies. In the study, field trials on site-specific fertilization were carried out over a period of four years on three different farms in a case study. Using the example of site-specific fertilization as a digital technology, the on-farm-research trials show which trade-offs and synergies occur between ecological and economic sustainability indicators in the digitization of agriculture in arable farming. Site-specific fertilization has led to an increase in yields, regardless of the size of the farm. This results in lower emissions per unit of product produced. In terms of economic benefits, the results show that farm size is crucial for the profitability of site-specific fertilization. The smaller the size of the farm, the higher the costs per unit associated with the technology. Whether synergies or trade-offs occur between ecological and economic sustainability indicators in site-specific fertilization has to be calculated manually so far, as the sustainability assessment tools do not provide this information. In the second study, an algorithm was developed that assesses the biodiversity potential in an indicator-based and prospective manner. To this end, agricultural management parameters (on-crop) and landscape parameters (off-crop) were first derived from the literature and then discussed in expert interviews. In these interviews, points were awarded for the on-crop and off-crop parameters and parameters influencing biodiversity in particular were weighted twice. The algorithm developed enables the biodiversity potential to be assessed on a field-specific basis. This allows farmers to determine which biodiversity potential is achieved at the cultivation planning stage. In addition, the algorithm can show farmers scenarios on how to optimize biodiversity performance. The third study addresses the social acceptance of digital technologies among farmers. The first and second study showed how the use of digital technologies can support farmers in their management. Therefore, the third research question investigated whether farmers use them at all. A qualitative Delphi study with experts was conducted to find out whether farmers accept and use digital technologies and how they affect the social dimension of sustainability. In most questions, the experts were unsure about farmers' acceptance of digital technologies and the general impact of digitization on farm life. The experts were concerned about data security, dependence on individual providers and the risk of smaller farmers not digitizing and thus being left behind in the digitization process because the costs of the technology are too high. Digital technologies can support the farmer's management on the one hand and contribute to a standardized sustainability assessment by automatically evaluating existing data on the other. However, this requires better interoperability of different software programs so that all data generated on the farm can be collected and evaluated centrally. This can enable the automation of the sustainability assessment and the transparency of sustainability performance for the downstream value chain. However, dealing with trade-offs within the sustainability dimensions when using digital technologies on the one hand, and the risk that farmers will not digitize due to a lack of economic viability on the other, hinder the digitization process.