Abstract
The agriculture sector is one of the backbones of many countries’ economies. Its processes have been changing to enable technology adoption to increase productivity, quality, and sustainable development. In this research, we present a scientific mapping of the adoption of precision techniques and breakthrough technologies in agriculture, so-called Digital Agriculture. To do this, we used 4694 documents from the Web of Science database to perform a Bibliometric Performance and Network Analysis of the literature using SciMAT software with the support of the PICOC protocol. Our findings presented 22 strategic themes related to Digital Agriculture, such as Internet of Things (IoT), Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and Climate-smart Agriculture (CSA), among others. The thematic network structure of the nine most important clusters (motor themes) was presented and an in-depth discussion was performed. The thematic evolution map provides a broad perspective of how the field has evolved over time from 1994 to 2020. In addition, our results discuss the main challenges and opportunities for research and practice in the field of study. Our findings provide a comprehensive overview of the main themes related to Digital Agriculture. These results show the main subjects analyzed on this topic and provide a basis for insights for future research.
Highlights
The field and the concept itself of agriculture have dramatically changed and have been profoundly revolutionized over time, with the introduction of new approaches and concepts, such as those of Precision Agriculture (PA) and Agriculture 4.0 (A4.0)
We presented the strategic themes and the scientific evolution structure of Digital Agriculture
With the PICOC protocol and the SciMAT software it was possible to map and identify the strategic themes of the field of study, which are mainly associated with technologies and sustainable development, such as Internet of Things (IoT), Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), Global Positioning System (GPS), spatial variability, and Climate-smart Agriculture (CSA)
Summary
The field and the concept itself of agriculture have dramatically changed and have been profoundly revolutionized over time, with the introduction of new approaches and concepts, such as those of Precision Agriculture (PA) and Agriculture 4.0 (A4.0). Around 10,000 years ago, humans began to dedicate efforts to domesticating plants and animals, spreading seeds, planting seedlings, and using animal force to plow the land [1]. This revolution that changed human life and transformed hunter-gatherers into farmers is called the Neolithic Revolution or the First. This revolution was a great leap for humankind—as it allowed the cultivation of plants and guaranteed food for the population—the new activities demanded more hours of work [2] This dedication to agriculture generated a surplus of food that multiplied the number of people and created elites who owned and controlled land and food [2]. Between the First Agricultural Revolution and the prosperous and abundant society that we have today, thousands of years have passed, and several transformations have occurred in the ways of production, and several difficulties related to economic niches, malnutrition and wars over fields and cultures have arisen [2]
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