Responsible innovation should underpin so-called fourth agricultural revolution to also provide social benefits and address potentially negative side effects.

December 31, 2018

2 Min Read
Responsible innovation key to smart farming
stevanovicigor/iStock/Thinkstock

Responsible innovation that considers the wider impacts on society is key to smart farming, according to academics at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in the U.K.

Agriculture is undergoing a technology revolution supported by policy-makers around the world, UEA said. While smart technologies will play an important role in achieving improved productivity and greater eco-efficiency, the university said critics have suggested that consideration of the social impacts is being sidelined.

In a new journal article, Drs. David Rose and Jason Chilvers from UEA’s School of Environmental Sciences argue that the concept of responsible innovation should underpin the so-called fourth agricultural revolution, ensuring that innovations also provide social benefits and address potentially negative side effects, according to the UEA announcement.

Each of the previous revolutions was radical at the time — the first representing a transition from hunting and gathering to settled agriculture, the second relating to the British Agricultural Revolution in the 18th century and the third to post-war productivity increases associated with mechanization and the so-called "Green Revolution" in the developing world, UEA said.

The current agricultural technology (ag tech) developments come at a time when the U.K. government has provided £90 million of public money to transform food production in order to be at the forefront of global advanced sustainable agriculture, UEA said, noting that many other countries are also prioritizing smart ag tech.

Combining this with private investment from organizations like IBM, Barclays and Microsoft means that "Agriculture 4.0" is underway, UEA said, with technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics increasingly being used in farming.

“All of these emergent technologies have uses in farming and may provide many benefits. For example, robotics could plug potential lost labor ... in industries such as fruit picking, while robotics and AI could enable better chemical application, saving farmers money and protecting the environment. They could also attract new, younger farmers to an ageing industry,” Rose, a lecturer in human geography, said.

Writing in Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, Rose and Chilvers warned that ag tech could also have side effects, bringing potential environmental, ethical and social costs.

“In light of controversial agri-tech precedents, it is beyond doubt that smart farming is going to cause similar controversy. Robotics and AI could cause job losses or change the nature of farming in ways that are undesirable to some farmers. Others might be left behind by technological advancement, while wider society might not like how food is being produced,” Rose said.

“We, therefore, encourage policy-makers, funders, technology companies and researchers to consider the views of both farming communities and wider society," he said. “This means better ways, both formal and informal, to include farmers and the public in decision-making as well as advisors and other key stakeholders sharing their views."

Subscribe to Our Newsletters
Feedstuffs is the news source for animal agriculture

You May Also Like