Smart Agriculture as an Evolutionary Form of Agricultural Production in a Digital Economy

Abstract

AbstractThe paper aims to conduct a systematic scientific interpretation of the fundamentals of the concept of agriculture by defining the concept, its essence, structure, and directions of development of smart agriculture, as well as their benefits. The authors apply the method of structural–functional analysis to analyze the structure of smart agriculture. Additionally, they apply the regression analysis method for determining the dependence of the scale of national programs of smart agriculture on the development of information and communication technologies in the countries. The World Bank’s materials on national smart agriculture programs were systematized for the study. As a result, the authors prove that smart agriculture is an evolutionary form of agricultural production in the digital economy. The authors propose a systematic scientific interpretation of the fundamentals of the concept of agriculture, defining its concept and essence. The authors investigate the geographical and sectoral (directions of development) structure of the smart agriculture market and substantiate its advantages covering the development of rural areas, increasing the accessibility and investment attractiveness of agricultural entrepreneurship, and ensuring food security and growth of environmental efficiency of agriculture.KeywordsSmart agricultureEvolutionary formAgrarian productionDigital economyJEL CodesQ15Q18O14