Digital Agriculture (Precision Farming)
Digital Agriculture (Precision Farming): Technology Overview
Digital agriculture aims to increase agricultural efficiency. This includes the use of drones or autonomous vehicles such as farm and harvesting robots. Precision farming is a subset of digital agriculture that focuses specifically on using technologies such as GPS, IoT sensors, and data analytics to manage field variability and optimize crop yields, input use, and farm efficiency. Key current trends include the integration of AI and machine learning for predictive analytics. Future developments are expected to include the expansion of fully autonomous farming systems, increased adoption of synthetic biology and gene-editing tools, wider connectivity via 5G and low-Earth orbit satellites to support rural IoT infrastructure, and a stronger emphasis on sustainability metrics to meet climate and regulatory goals.
Global Development of world class patents in digital agriculture (precision farming)
The patent analysis shows that the number of world-class patents in digital agriculture (precision pharma) has increased almost fivefold over the last 10 years, reaching around 11,800 in 2024.
Top 25 Countries
World-class patents in digital agriculture (precision farming) are primarily developed by Chinese and US companies and universities. The EU is competing with Japan for third place in the global ranking.
Top 25 Companies
The US company Deere is the leading innovator in digital agriculture. Other top research players include CNH Industrial, Kubota, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Bayer.
Top 25 connected technologies
Key connected technologies for digital agriculture are AgTech, soil handling, image analysis, neural networks & deep learning, internet of things and sensors. Only world class patents are shown that are assigned to both digital agriculture and enabling technologies / adjacent fields.
Key connected technologies for digital agriculture (precision farming) – country activities
The following chart shows which countries are active in key enabling technologies or connected fields for digital agriculture. Only world class patents are shown that are assigned to both digital agriculture and enabling / connected technologies. Individual countries can be activated or deactivated by clicking on the corresponding circle in the legend.
Reading example: the number next to the listed technologies indicates the number of world-class patents in 2024. China is the clear leader in the use of Deep Learning for precision farming and in climate adaptation technologies, while the US is ahead technologies such as AgTech, sensors, navigation/gps, autonomous driving and lidar/radar. Patent applications involving researchers from more than one country are assigned to the countries of those researchers. Consequently, the sum of top research locations exceeds 100%.
