From Industry 4.0 to Agriculture 4.0: Current Status, Enabling Technologies, and Research Challenges

TLDR

The three industrial revolutions have transformed agriculture from indigenous to mechanized and precision farming, yet productivity gains have brought new challenges that Industry 4.0 aims to address in a forthcoming fourth agricultural revolution. The article reviews the current status and lessons of industrial agriculture and seeks to open new research opportunities for industrial practitioners. The authors discuss five emerging technologies—IoT, robotics, AI, big data analytics, and blockchain—highlighting their key applications in agriculture and outlining associated research challenges.

Abstract

The three previous industrial revolutions profoundly transformed agriculture industry from indigenous farming to mechanized farming and recent precision agriculture. Industrial farming paradigm greatly improves productivity, but a number of challenges have gradually emerged, which have exacerbated in recent years. Industry 4.0 is expected to reshape the agriculture industry once again and promote the fourth agricultural revolution. In this article, first, we review the current status of industrial agriculture along with lessons learned from industrialized agricultural production patterns, industrialized agricultural production processes, and the industrialized agri-food supply chain. Furthermore, five emerging technologies, namely the Internet of Things, robotics, artificial intelligence, big data analytics, and blockchain, toward Agriculture 4.0 are discussed. Specifically, we focus on the key applications of these emerging technologies in the agricultural sector and corresponding research challenges. This article aims to open up new research opportunities for readers, particularly industrial practitioners.