Economic and policy analysis of technology uptake for the smart management of agricultural systems

This special issue of Bio-based and Applied Economics “Economic and policy analysis of technology uptake for the smart management of agricultural systems” stems from the growing diffusion of innovative digital technologies as strategic solutions for the development of the agricultural sector. Agriculture is undergoing a profound transformation thanks to the integration of new technologies (Vishnoi and Goel, 2024; Aijaz et al., 2025), with a view to the sustainable development of the sector (Norman and MacDonald, 2004; Nica et al., 2025). The combined economic and environmental benefits of technology adoption in agriculture are widely recognized in the literature (Giorgio et al., 2024; Papadopoulos et al., 2025). To illustrate, technologies in agriculture help address current interconnected challenges related to productivity, cost reduction, agri-food safety, natural resource conservation, animal welfare, worker safety, and, more generally, the achievement of sustainable development goals (Castillo-Díaz et al., 2025; Finger, 2023; Basso and Antle, 2020; Musa and Basir, 2022; Sridhar et al., 2023). In this context, technological innovations have enabled significant improvement of various agricultural processes through the introduction of different tools, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), sensors, robotics, drones, blockchain, and artificial intelligence (Sharma and Shivandu, 2024). As discussed by Arraigada and Mac Clay (2025), these tools can either complement traditional technologies (e.g., IoT sensors connected to conventional irrigation systems) or substitute them (e.g., spraying drones replacing a traditional sprayer). The diffusion of innovative digital tools in agriculture is growing (Shang et al., 2021), but their take up still varies significantly across countries, farm types, and production systems (Eastwood et al., 2019; Rose and Chilvers, 2018; Shepherd et al., 2020). This uneven pattern highlights the need to understand the mechanisms underlying the adoption of these technologies and suggests that digital transformation in agriculture is not just about technology, but also depends on social structures, institutions, and interactions between networks and governance systems (Roberts et al., 2017; Jia, 2021), as well as farmers’ personal attitudes and traits (Deißler et al., 2022). This special issue contributes to the ongoing debate on how digitalization is reshaping agriculture. Combining behavioral theories, such as the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1991), the technology acceptance model (Davis, 1989), and the unified theory of technology acceptance and use (Venkatesh et al., 2012), with economic and policy analyses, the articles examine in detail the factors that help or hinder farmers in adopting new technologies (Maesano et al., 2025; Cozzi et al., 2025; Moussaoui et al., 2025).