Farming 4.0: Investigating how the digital data revolution may change how we produce food and the nature of rural communities

Farming 4.0: Investigating how the digital data revolution may change how we produce food and the nature of rural communities

Project Leads

Evan Fraser – University of Guelph Geography (Principal investigator)

Hannah Wittman, Zia Mehrabi – UBC Team members

Funding

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

 

About the Project

This cross-country study will evaluate how growers perceive the social impacts of emerging digital agricultural technologies in four Canadian provinces and sectors: B.C. study (Horticulture), Saskatchewan (Cereal, grain, oilseed and pulse), Atlantic Canada (Aquaculture) and Ontario (Dairy). The study will explore producers’ adoption and engagement with digital agricultural technologies in relation to the issues of equity, knowledge management, and data accessibility. The findings from this study will better inform policy decisions around investments in education and training focused on the development of data-driven agricultural technologies and competencies.

Research questions

  • How do producers perceive the ways in which digital devices and platforms are reshaping the way we farm and fish?
  • What barriers/opportunities exist within the adoption of digital agriculture technologies that could prevent/enable farmers and fishers to better manage resources while providing widespread equity and societal and economic benefits?
  • How are Canadian universities responding and preparing future students for disruptive digital agriculture technologies?
  • The grant will also support piloting and adapting the digital farm management tool Litefarm to organic and diversified horticulture production in Canada.

Researchers will distribute a preliminary survey to gain baseline data on farmers’, fishers and growers’ adoption of, and engagement with digital technologies. The next phase includes case-studies in the four studied provinces to monitor and collect observational data around the social and educational impacts that digital technologies have provided, as well as how they might have changed producers’ operation and management practices.

Project impact: This study expects to create a better understanding of the impacts of technological innovation on rural producers. Furthermore, post-secondary institutes will gain a better understanding of how to adapt training for the next generation of leaders in the agriculture and food sector and to ensure that new technologies benefit growers equitably.