Applications of “Agriculture 4.0” in the Digital Age

To integrate resource preservation with economic, social, and environmental sustainability, modern agriculture is increasingly focused on the synergistic adoption of technologies like the Internet of Things, the Internet of Farming, big data analytics, and blockchain. Although “Agriculture 4.0” and “Farming 4.0” solutions have a huge market growth potential in Italy, there has been relatively little uptake of the corresponding technology advancements. Italian businesses are becoming more aware of the benefits presented by the 4.0 paradigm, although the phenomenon has not yet reached its full potential due to cultural and technological constraints. This study intends to advance knowledge that will increase farm operators’ tendency to use “Agriculture 4.0” digital solutions.

Every area of human civilization is impacted by the digital transformation brought about by information and communication technologies (ICT), which also accelerates conventional innovation and development processes. Additionally, it produces quick innovations in products and processes that impact a variety of societal sectors, including economics, communication, e-government, services, art, and archaeology, as well as medical and science [1-8].

These procedures rely on some enabling technologies, categorized as product-service and process innovations, which are of strategic economic relevance [9,10], especially the Internet of Things and big data. The recording of daily routines and actions using sensors and/or devices, interchange, storage, and sharing are all included in the Internet of Things.

In the agribusiness sector, “Precision Farming” solutions (IoT sensors, mobile devices, smart tractors, robots, drones), “smart”

A concept of “Agriculture 4.0” is being developed by integrating farming solutions (management software, analytics, and cloud). using automated gathering, integration, and Utilizing 4.0 technology and data analysis from many sources, it is possible to produce information and aid the farmer in making decisions to increase Agriculture’s economic, social, and environmental sustainability and profitability.

One well-known issue is that industry players are still unsure of how to take advantage of these opportunities and which digital skills to invest in. According to the literature, digital farming systems (aided by ICT) have an impact on values between 1 and 4-5%, as opposed to 40-70% in China, Israel, and the USA [52-55], while robots and sensors for precision agriculture are used on only 2% of the agricultural land that is currently in use, particularly in the regions of Northern Italy [47-51]. Despite the advancements gained during the COVID-19 pandemic era, Internet usage is expanding relatively slowly, especially in the grain, fruit, vegetable, and wine industries [15,56,57]. They were mostly used in farming.