Addressing challenges in agriculture: Exploring digitalization and innovation to support future farming practices

Abstract

Agriculture has long played a vital role in fulfilling the basic human need for food, evolving over centuries through innovations. The sector has progressed through distinct phases from introducing motorized tractors within Agriculture 1.0 to the phase of Agriculture 4.0, which focuses on digitalization. Digitalization in agriculture offers farmers clear value through benefits like improved product safety, time and cost savings, resource efficiency, and environmentally friendly processes. Despite growing interest, with 43% of Austrian farmers expressing a positive view of agricultural technology, and a projected market growth from $8 billion in 2018 to $30 billion by 2028 in Germany, companies still face challenges in anticipating future needs. A significant barrier remains the gap in understanding farmers’ challenges, needs, requirements, and experiences regarding digitalization. Aspects such as understanding new technology, data management and interpretation, regulatory and ethical concerns, training and skills, cost-benefit, and digital infrastructure are still largely unknown to farmers. The factors outlined above form the foundation of this master’s thesis, which focuses on identifying farmers’ challenges, needs, requirements, and experiences in the context of agricultural digitalization and exploring how companies can effectively address these issues. Following the introductory Chapter 1, Chapter 2 provides an overview of the agricultural sector, the ongoing digital transformation, farmers’ objectives and perspectives, as well as relevant strategies, policies, and political programs. Chapter 3 then focuses on the transformation phase known as Agriculture 4.0, detailing the associated technologies and their application areas. Chapter 4 examines strategic approaches to innovation, incorporating concepts such as the jobs-to-be-done theory, outcome-driven innovation, business models, and company capabilities. Building on the established foundational knowledge on digitalization in agriculture, Chapter 5 outlines the chosen research methodology, expert interviews with farmers from the DACH region, to gain in-depth insights into the identified problems. A framework was developed to structure these insights, linking farmers’ key customer touchpoints with relevant company capabilities. The results of this analysis are presented in Chapter 6. Finally, Chapter 7 concludes the thesis by summarizing key findings and offering potential avenues for future research. As a result of this work, several areas were identified where farmers are currently experiencing difficulties. On the one hand, it is increasingly difficult for farmers to make decisions regarding climate-related aspects. On the other hand, farmers are struggling with aspects such as data security, interoperability, high investment costs, or training with digital technologies when using or implementing digital solutions.

Date of Award	2025
Original language	English
Supervisor	Herbert Jodlbauer (Supervisor)