Farming 4.0: Towards Sustainable Agriculture

Dear Colleagues,

Undeniably, over the last few years, humanity has faced several threats, but also challenges, in relation to its security and preservation. As the world population is continuously growing, nutrition and food security are among the most critical debates in the public dialogue internationally, constituting a crucial aspect for global security and a prerequisite for democracy and freedom. In the years to come, the world will unquestionably require more (even doubled compared to current needs) food. Moreover, environmental deterioration due to agrifood production presents a major risk on global sustainability for the generations to come. In this light, the need for immediate actions is urgent. On the other hand, late rapid technological developments and advancements in ICT, ΙοΤ, robotics, automation, sensors, and farming equipment present major opportunities for humankind and provide stakeholders (governments, policy-makers, scientists, investors, agrifood companies, retailers, farmers, consumers, etc.) with revolutionary tools to boost efficiency in food production, battle against environmental degradation, and improve labor conditions and public well-being. To that end, digitization of agriculture constitutes a critical parameter of success toward sustainable development. Apart from this trend, “Farming 4.0” is widely accepted as the future of farming, influencing food security, poverty, and the overall sustainability of agricultural systems, by minimizing the required inputs in resources and maximizing agri-production. Farming 4.0 is expected to shift toward an innovation- and knowledge-based economy, ultimately resulting in safe, cost-effective, efficient, and environmentally sound agriculture.

This Special Issue seeks to contribute to the sustainable agriculture agenda through enriching scientific knowledge in an effort to proliferate performance efficiency and support decision-making in modern agri-business. In this context, we invite papers on innovative technical developments, reviews, case studies, and analytical, as well as assessment, papers from different disciplines, which are relevant to all different aspects related to the digitization of agriculture within the fields of primary agriculture, agrifood production, and agrifood supply chains. Indicatively, the following topics are welcome to be captured in the contributions to the present Special Issue: information and communication technologies (ICT), Internet of Things (IoT), machine-embedded tools, robotics, automation, human–computer interaction, artificial intelligence, remote sensing (e.g., wireless sensor networks, remote sensing and GIS applications, biosensors, physical/chemical/optical sensors), data management (e.g., big data, data mining, data visualization, image processing, knowledge management, data/metadata standards, ontologies for agriculture, knowledge repository, web of data and open data), traceability tools, social networking, etc.

Prof. Charisios Achillas
Prof. Dionysis Bochtis
Prof. Dimitrios Aidonis
Guest Editors

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