Agriculture 4.0 paradigm: a preliminary systematic literature review

In recent years Agriculture 4.0 is gaining attention in literature. But even with a strong scientific background there is a lack of contributions that aim to define the meaning of the paradigm and systematise its pillars. The paper we propose investigates the enabling technologies describing the paradigm, its domain of application, benefits, and challenges, presenting a systematic review of the literature. So, 93 papers have been analysed with the aim at characterizing the phenomenon of “Agriculture 4.0” by examining how the literature describe the convergence of digital agriculture and digital technologies. During the analysis of the chosen literature set, we identify a set of 10 main application domains of digital technologies in agriculture, 11 characterising enabling technologies, 6 main benefits and 7 obstacles related to agriculture 4.0. Indeed, from the review, it emerges that there are significant areas of the phenomenon that are still unexplored and/or not fully addressed; this calls for future researchers to expand the area of investigation into smart agriculture (regarding the technologies covered and the effect achievable from the combinatorial effect among them) and to develop models and frameworks to support policy and decision making related to the agriculture 4.0 paradigm.