14 Apr, 2025
Updated on 15 Apr, 2025
12 min read
Digital agriculture has emerged as an essential force in transforming traditional farming practices across the EU. As the agricultural sector confronts challenges such as climate change, population growth, and increasing sustainability demands, integrating digital farming tools has become essential.
The agri-food sector is one of the largest economic sectors in the EU. Around 44 million jobs in food processing, food retailing, and catering depend on agriculture, in which around 12 million farmers are currently employed. About half of the EU territory is dedicated to farming and is inhabited by about 20 percent of the EU’s population. Digitalizing this industry will have a considerable impact on the EU economy and population.
Any overview article should start with an assessment of the current situation. However, in the EU, where many digital farming projects, funding, activities, and governmental support are happening right now, it’s still too early to get the proper numbers describing its state. This speaks for itself: the process is underway, but it’s still in a growth stage.
- By 2023, 90.5% of rural households in the EU had internet access, which opens doors to the penetration of digital tools into the industry.
- Almost half of the countries in the European Union reported less than 50% rural coverage of gigabit-capable fixed networks in 2022, with slow progress. Overall, this translates to just 41% coverage in the EU. The numbers could be a barrier to the penetration of tools that handle big amounts of data, say, video telematics, which are an important part of modern digital agriculture technologies.
- Based on a survey of 250 farmers in an agricultural region of central Italy, 69–78% used smartphones and computers for their operations. Comparable adoption rates are found for farmers in Germany and many other countries.
Will we get a clearer picture of the state of digital transformation in agriculture in the coming years? This article delves into the EU's journey toward bringing innovation into one of the oldest industries, exploring its current state, and tangible outcomes.
Why digitalization in agriculture matters
FAO forecasts that over 90 percent of the demand for global food production by 2050 will be met by increasing the yield of current arable land based on advances in agricultural research. Implementing and conveying this knowledge to farmers through successful research-extension linkages and developing new ecosystems will be key to achieving enhanced production levels. But does the EU actually need to increase the food production per se?
Meeting the EU food demand
The EU population is projected to grow slightly in the next five years, followed by a steady decline until the end of the century. Overall, EU agricultural production is expected to grow more slowly than before and may decline for some commodities by 2035.
However, other factors that may cause a decline in production must be considered.
Climate change and its impacts on key natural resources pose significant challenges to agricultural productivity. So, shielding from climate issues and keeping food production at the needed level is a relevant question for the next decade.
The EU doesn’t need to increase food production but must ensure stability and resilience against climate disruptions by leveraging digital technologies in agriculture
Many assessing bodies suggest a hypothetical extreme weather event will affect global feed suppliers by 2035. Consequently, the EU feed supply chain would also be impacted, with indirect effects on EU meat producers, since the EU is a net importer of protein feed.
Improvements to the EU’s feed efficiency and protein-rich crop yields via introducing digital agriculture practices can improve the resilience of the EU meat sector and decrease its dependence on imported protein feed.
Sustainability and climate concerns
Agriculture significantly impacts the environment, contributing 10% of the EU's total greenhouse gas emissions. Agricultural emissions stem from a range of sources, including livestock production, crop cultivation, and soil management practices. Moreover, agriculture also contains hidden emissions that are attributed to other sectors, e.g., CO2 emissions from fossil fuel and electricity used for machinery, drying crops, and the manufacture of fertilisers/pesticides are accounted for by the energy sector.
Bill Gates says we should move to a zero-emissions economy to avoid a climate disaster. Hence, any emissions reduction is welcome, required, and planned, and digital agriculture is the answer to many questions in the global emissions equation.
Consumer trends and traceability
Modern EU consumers are increasingly conscious of the origins and safety of their food, driving a significant demand for transparency in the food supply chain. Consumers are also showing a growing interest in ethical considerations — such as free-range farming, humane slaughter practices, and religious compliance (e.g., halal or kosher) — further shaping their purchasing decisions and expectations of traceability.
This heightened awareness has led to substantial growth in the food traceability market within Europe. In 2023, it generated approximately $4.07 billion in revenue and is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 9.3% from 2024 to 2030.
Meeting these traceability demands inevitably requires the adoption of digital farming technologies, including blockchain for immutable records, IoT-enabled sensors for real-time monitoring, and AI-powered analytics for supply chain optimization, ensuring accuracy and compliance with food safety regulations.
Tools and technologies for digitizing farming
Old-school digitalization: going paperless
A paperless farm means more than eliminating random inventory lists or fuel tracking in a notebook. It also means the absence of paper invoices and fleet documentation such as field trip logs and maintenance checks. It invokes electronic compliance records, including tracking pesticide and other chemical usage.
Precision agriculture systems
Drones are used to monitor crops with high accuracy in digital farming
Precision agriculture employs technologies such as drones, GPS-guided tractors, soil sensors, and satellite imaging to monitor and manage crops with high accuracy. These tools enable farmers to apply inputs like water and fertilizers precisely where needed, optimizing resource use and enhancing productivity.
IoT and data analytics
Now, IoT solutions are comprised of sensors and devices across the farm fields and greenhouses, collecting real-time data on soil conditions, weather patterns, and crop health. Basically, instead of going into the field and measuring the soil’s parameters, an agronomist can receive these values staying in their workplace, thanks to digital farming tools.
Big data analytics processes this information, providing insights that drive farming practices and predictive decision-making. While big data can benefit farms of all sizes, its impact is particularly significant for larger agricultural operations, where managing vast amounts of data from multiple fields, machinery, and supply chain logistics is crucial for optimizing efficiency and reducing costs.
Artificial intelligence
AI algorithms analyze data to predict crop diseases, optimize planting schedules, increasing efficiency and reducing human error.
Beyond agriculture-specific applications, AI simplifies operational tasks like financial forecasting, supply chain optimization, and administrative work. These areas are crucial for farms and agricultural entrepreneurs, who face highly sensitive profit margins due to cost fluctuations and market conditions.
Last but not least, all-purpose AI can be very helpful for small agricultural entrepreneurs who must manage everything themselves, from the actual field work to bookkeeping to marketing their goods and supplying them to stores, distributors, or production sites.
Cloud and edge computing
For smaller farms, cloud-based solutions provide affordable access to advanced analytics and decision-making tools without significant on-site infrastructure. For larger farms, cloud platforms enable integration of multiple data sources, such as IoT sensors, weather forecasts, and supply chain management systems, to optimize large-scale operations.
Meanwhile, edge computing provides low-latency solutions by processing data locally on the farm, ensuring timely responses to critical agricultural processes such as automated irrigation, livestock monitoring, or real-time equipment diagnostics. This is particularly beneficial in rural areas with limited broadband connectivity, where real-time decision-making is crucial but cloud access may be intermittent.
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The role of fleet management in digital farming
In modern farming, tractors, harvesters, irrigation vehicles, and transport fleets play a key role in every stage of agricultural operations — from planting and harvesting to distribution. As farms grow in size and complexity, the ability to track, optimize, and automate fleet operations becomes essential for maintaining efficiency and reducing operational costs.
This section explores how advanced fleet management solutions contribute to the broader digital transformation in agriculture, making farms more efficient, sustainable, and competitive.
Real-time monitoring and historical data
As with any fleet, commercial or not, real-time visibility brings numerous benefits: from being able to control and dispatch vehicles, whether to transport crops or perform work in the field, to seeing that the job is done exactly as it is supposed to be. If a tractor misses a part of the field when laboring, it’s best the dispatcher sees it right away and lets the driver know while he is still in the field nearby.
Historical data on agricultural and associated fleets is essential for digital farming for numerous reasons. One is to lower costs: if your truck came from the field with less fuel than you expected, you might want to see it happen because it was stuck in the mud for an hour and a half or someone drained a bit of fuel.
Maintenance automation
Farming heavily relies on vehicles and machines, sometimes complex and expensive, all of which need maintenance. Owning tens or even hundreds of vehicles on a farm and having someone track the checks done on harvesters, let alone track them in an Excel file, will not be sustainable in 2025 and beyond. So, tools for maintenance automation come in handy.
Plus, it is valid not only for automation but also for employing predictive maintenance: it can reduce maintenance costs by 30–40% compared to reactive maintenance strategies. In other words, sending that car to the body shop before it actually breaks is cheaper.
Going paperless
One of the many sides of digital innovation in agriculture is going paperless
There is a reason this article features two sections named like that. This initiative has been widely adopted and is progressing rapidly across the EU. A good example is the mandatory switch to e-CMRs (electronic waybills).
Farmers have increasingly utilized digital platforms to maintain records of crop treatments, equipment maintenance, and compliance documentation, reducing reliance on physical paperwork.
Integration with farm management software
Combining fleet management systems with farm management platforms allows for synchronized operations. For example, a fleet management platform can automatically log data into crop tracking databases when a specific operation is performed in the field.
What comes next?
The digitalization landscape of EU agribusiness is rich enough, but we can expect even more advancements that will contribute to growth shortly. Here are some of them.
Scaling fleet management solutions
According to recent reports, the number of active fleet management systems is expected to increase from 16.3 million units at the end of 2023 to 27.6 million by 2028. This adoption number is equally likely to cover agricultural fleets. But that’s not all. As fleet management solutions change, they adopt specific trends of their own and influence the industries they are used in, including digital agriculture.
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Predictions for the future
Will this potential actually fuel digital agriculture across EU farms? Most definitely, yes.
The digital agriculture market in the EU is experiencing significant growth, which is supported by the numbers:
- By 2027, the Estimated European smart farming market is forecasted to reach $8.4 billion, more than doubling its 2021 value.
- Approximately one-third of European businesses have adopted AI, marking a 32% growth rate since the previous year. If this trend continues, AI adoption could contribute an additional €600 billion in gross value added to the European economy by 2030, inevitably adding agriculture ventures into these adoption numbers.
- The number of IoT active connections in EU digital agriculture has been steadily increasing, from 0.51 million in 2016 to an expected 2.27 million by 2025, indicating a growing integration of IoT devices in farming operations.
- The European precision agriculture market was valued at $2.47 billion in 2022 and is expected to reach $4.36 billion by 2027, with a CAGR of 12.02%.
These and other figures clearly indicate that the digitalization of EU agriculture is in full swing. This presents a prime opportunity for agribusinesses to adopt new methods and strengthen their market position while also creating significant demand for companies specializing in digitalization, fleet management, IoT, and connectivity solutions.
Conclusion
As of 2025, the European Union (EU) comprises 27 member countries, collectively housing a population of approximately 450 million people. Within the EU, the agricultural sector remains a significant employer, accounting for 4.2% of the total employment.
The impact of digital agriculture as such a significant sector of the economy will not take long to manifest fully. As a result, it will reshape logistics chains, exports, production, and other interconnected industries, driving efficiency and innovation across the board.
At Wialon, we have built fleet digitalization tools for over two decades. We’re excited to explore and contribute to the rich fabric of fleet management being evolved and transformed.
Want to learn more about how fleet digitalization and management trends shape the EU landscape, for example, with smart city mobility or fleet electrification?
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