Towards Resilient and Informed Agricultural Systems: Innovative Examples of Interdisciplinary Digital Policymaking

1. Promising Features

Modern agriculture is called upon to function effectively at the intersection of environmental degradation, climate variability, and increasing demands for food security. Addressing these challenges requires integrated approaches that combine proper decision-making, agro-environmental balance, and digital innovation. Recent interdisciplinary developments, such as those describing the fuzzy logic frameworks of multi-criteria decision-making, studies of phytopathogens and diagnostic tools of soil health, and modeling and understanding the mechanisms of water and nutrient uptake by the root system under extreme climatic–environmental conditions, offer new directions for resilient, science-based agricultural systems.

A key issue in the proper planning of agricultural land is how to select optimal land management options under conditions of uncertainty and complexity. A recent study proposes integrating fuzzy logic with a multi-criteria decision-making approach, allowing land managers to take into account the ambiguity and subjectivity of different characteristics of agricultural land (Contribution 1). This method enhances flexibility and robustness in strategic planning, offering a way forward for proper agricultural land use policy.

Also, digital decision-making tools such as the Nitrate Fate (NFt) tool help us take a step forward in the functionality of sustainable agricultural land management. NFt, integrated into the LandSupport platform, simulates nitrate leaching risks and groundwater vulnerability by linking crop growth models with nitrate transport algorithms. Case studies from Italy reveal that high water tables significantly increase the risk of nitrate transport to groundwater and the unsaturated soil zone, highlighting the importance of spatially based, evidence-based policy tools for nutrient management (Contribution 2).

In addition to decision support methods, soil microbiome dynamics in overfertilization conditions reveal important suggestions for the control of various soil diseases/pathogens. Research in greenhouse tomato systems shows that excessive nutrient enrichment (particularly high nitrate concentrations) can reduce microbial diversity and inhibit advantageous biocontrol agents such as Bacillus spp., ultimately increasing crop susceptibility to soil pathogens (Contribution 3). These findings are a critical reminder that the intensive use of inputs can inadvertently compromise the ecosystem balance, especially those associated with soil health and pathogen suppression.

The ability to spatially identify and visualize the often elusive physical constraints that exist in the subsoil, particularly in many semi-arid and arid agricultural zones, is a very important management tool for land use planning under challenging geoclimatic conditions. A case study on southern Peru applied geophysical tools, including ground-penetrating radar and frequency domain electromagnetics, to map cemented subsoils (caliche) that inhibit plant root growth and water infiltration (Contribution 4). These techniques provide rapid and efficient spatial data for assessing the suitability of land for agricultural use and for land restoration plans.

The importance of biophysical factors and the coexistence of different species is also demonstrated by pioneering research on the temporal transformations of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in integrated rice–crayfish systems in China. The researchers observed that the quality of DOM changes as the system matures, initially favoring humic accumulation and later evolving towards a higher amino acid content as microbial activity and the soil structure are enhanced (Contribution 5). These long-term trends demonstrate the adaptive benefits of cohesive agroecosystems and strengthen their role in sustainable soil management.

Optimizing water resources is a top priority, especially in hyper-arid environments, where the location and amount of water absorbed by the plant root system must be calculated with the greatest possible accuracy, limiting any water losses below the active root system of plants. In this context, a study conducted in Saudi Arabia using the HYDRUS 1D simulation model and electrical resistivity tomography calculated the dynamics of water absorbed by trees (citrus) under extreme climatic and soil conditions, finding that most water uptake occurred in the upper 30 cm of the soil and shifted downward with increasing temperature (Contribution 6). Such insights can guide precision irrigation strategies that save water while maintaining crop productivity, a particularly urgent need under conditions of accelerating climate change.

2. Conclusions

All these studies are giving rise to new directions in agricultural science—a shift that moves beyond classic and often outdated ideas for improving agricultural production and embraces new easy-to-use and low-cost digital technologies that monitor and decode data as well as environmentally friendly ecological systems. For scholars and policymakers, the message is clear: sustainable agriculture will not come from technology alone, but from interdisciplinary, adaptive strategies and participatory governance based on strong data and tools.