Strengthening Multifunctional Agriculture through Digitalisation: Insights from Europe and Japan

Abstract

We are told today that agriculture and rural areas are living through a pervasive digital transformation. But will digitalisation reverse the current productivism model or perpetuate it? In this paper, I reflect on how digitalisation is being used to internalise positive externalities and promote a more diversified and multifunctional agriculture. Digitalisation for internalisation is more than just a socio-technological blend. Social and physical arrangements are shaped accordingly at farm or even national and international level. The final outcomes might not always be desirable or effective in empowering agroecological farmers embedded in the territorial development, therefore I encourage to sharpen the lenses through which we analyse digitalisation and envisage policy interventions in the name of agricultural multifunctionality. By shedding light on carbon credits, digital marketing in social farming, and servitisation via e-wine tours, this paper contributes to the debate about digital agriculture’s risks and opportunities and raises themes and questions for scholars and policy makers engaged in responsible digitalisation for agriculture and rural development.