The Role of Digitalization in Sustainable Agriculture

Agriculture, the foundation of human life, provides essential food, nutrition, and raw materials such as fibers. However, it also faces numerous risks and challenges. These include climate change, water scarcity, limited arable land, biodiversity loss, and low productivity. Additional pressures arise from population aging, market volatility, shifting consumer preferences, population growth, and increasing demand for environmental sustainability. Industry 4.0 is increasingly influencing agriculture, with data-driven technologies, such as IT, IoT, GPS, GIS, drones, robotics, and AI, which enhance efficiency and reducing costs and environmental impacts. To better understand how digitalization influences agriculture, this secondary research was conducted through a content analysis and literature review. This study proposes an integrated framework for understanding how digital agriculture acts as a cross-dimensional driver of transformation, linking sustainability, climate adaptation, production systems, and economic performance. By revealing the interconnections among these domains, it offers a more holistic logic of digitalization in agriculture beyond existing fragmented approaches. This integrative perspective enhances existing knowledge by demonstrating how digitalization simultaneously influences multiple dimensions of the agrifood system. Accordingly, future research should focus on improving farmers’ digital literacy, reinforcing policy support, and advancing education and training systems to enable effective adoption across the full agrifood value chain.