A new open access discussion paper is now available on the BrightSpace Zenodo Community: DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17607902.
Title: Steering Smart Farming Technology Adoption toward a Safe and Just Operating Space
Authors: Lucie Adenäuer, Robert Finger, Madhu Khanna, Till Kuhn, Hugo Storm
Smart farming is reshaping agriculture through innovations such as precision farming, robotics, and AI-driven applications. While these technologies — often called agriculture’s fourth revolution — promise significant socio-economic and environmental benefits, adoption rates remain below socially desirable levels due to high risks and costs relative to returns.
This discussion paper introduces the Safe and Just Operating Space (SJOS) framework as a normative approach to guide the adoption of smart farming technologies. The SJOS concept extends the Planetary Boundaries framework by incorporating socio-economic dimensions aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. For the first time, it is applied to the design of regional and sector-specific policies aimed at promoting the most impactful smart farming technologies.
The paper outlines four key implementation steps:
- Downscaling and disaggregating environmental and socio-economic data to define regional Safe and Just boundaries.
- Scoring the regional status quo.
- Evaluating individual smart technologies against Safe and Just indicators.
- Creating a Safe and Just synthesis to prioritize technologies and inform targeted policy action.
This framework can support policymakers, researchers, and industry stakeholders in ensuring that technology deployment is timely, context-appropriate, and socially beneficial. Potential applications include guiding the European Common Agricultural Policy, the African Union’s Digital Agricultural Strategy, India’s drone promotion initiatives, and the US Farm Bill.
The discussion paper also highlights the advantages, limitations, and further research needs for effectively implementing SJOS-based policy strategies.
📥 Access the full paper here.
Source: UBO
