Executive summary The agrifood sector sustains the livelihoods of more than 1.23 billion people globally.1 The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that in order to feed the predicted 2050 global population of 9.1 billion, the sector will have to produce 70% more food than current levels – and to do so with similar resources. At the same time, the sector is grappling with the challenges of climate change, unequal distribution of food across the world’s population, soil degradation and geopolitical disruptions to supply chains. Agritech services are positioned to be the catalysts of the next revolution in the agriculture sector and have the potential to help farmers produce more without requiring increased resources. In 2021, the World Economic Forum published a community paper as part of the Artificial Intelligence for Agriculture Innovation (AI4AI) initiative that documented more than 20 agritech use cases in four categories: intelligent crop planning; smart farming; farmgate-to-fork; and data as an enabler.2 This insight report, a sequel to the 2021 paper, takes an overview of the role of Fourth Industrial Revolution technology in shaping the agriculture ecosystem, including farming activities and supply chains in the same four categories as in the 2021 paper: –Intelligent crop planning: gene editing and use of artificial intelligence (AI), soil testing-based and sowing-window advice –Smart farming: AI and augmented reality (AR) for crop advice and field planning, hyperlocal weather predictions, robotics, yield prediction and distributed ledger-based index insurance –Farmgate-to-fork: traceability, internet of things (IoT)-enabled warehousing, smart logistics and smart packaging –Data: digital public infrastructure (DPI – platform, policy and protocols) and its implications for farmers As advances in the agritech sector continue, adoption by smallholders and women farmers, two of the most vulnerable segments, remains a challenge. As outlined in a McKinsey Insight article,3 globally only 39% of farmers have adopted at least one technology service. This average is weighted by a 62% adoption rate among European farmers, while in Asia adoption is only 9%. The lack of clarity on return on investment (RoI) for technology is one of the main reasons for such low adoption rates generally. Similarly, women farmers are at risk of being left out of the agritech revolution due to ingrained socioeconomic challenges such as limited land-holding rights, even though women make up 43% of the global agricultural workforce. As agritech scales, it is imperative that smallholders and women farmers are included, or the implications for food security and the livelihoods of millions of people in emerging economies will be affected. Governments and the private sector should explore the kinds of public–private collaborations that have proved to be effective in creating sustainable public infrastructure and services. Agritech services have realized only a small part of the large, untapped opportunity to transform the agriculture sector in emerging economies. Governments will need to take on the role of enablers and offer incentives, both financial and non-financial, such as access to quality data through DPI or to on-the-ground channels in order to encourage the private sector to invest in scaling the adoption of agritech in the value chain. It is important to appreciate that digital channels alone will not drive the adoption of agritech services. There is a need for shared resources – for instance, rural entrepreneurs, a network of mobile money operators or e-governance services – all of which could be vital to drive adoption locally. Since such services would be based in a given community, they would enjoy farmers’ trust, and this in turn would help farmers to understand and appreciate the advantages of agritech and support them in their agritech-adoption journey. A local physical presence would also be important for the validation of agritech use, confirming the accuracy of satellite data on crops sown in a field, for example. A collaborative effort by governments, the private sector – including start-ups and investors – academia and civil society is the need of the hour. Considering the complexity and interrelatedness of activities in the agriculture sector, scaling inclusive agritech can best be achieved by taking a multistakeholder approach. Public–private partnerships to scale Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies in agriculture can encourage farmers to invest in and adopt emerging technologies. Agritech: Shaping Agriculture in Emerging Economies, Today and Tomorrow 4

Agritech 2024