Agriculture and Digital Technology: Getting the most out of digital technology to contribute to the transition to sustainable agriculture and food systems

National audienceThis white paper is an initiative of the executive boards of INRAE and Inria, who brought us together, tasked us and gave us carte blanche in coordinating and writing this work on digital technology in agriculture from a research perspective. Our reflections have been carried out in the context of the principal observed and foreseeable dynamics of agriculture in countries around the world that aim to support the development of more sustainable agricultural and food systems. In constructing the analysis and proposals presented in this publication, based on an inventory of the challenges, opportunities and risks associated with digital technology in agriculture, we have not aimed to simply focus on the consensus of opinion, but to express the diversity of the groups involved, in particular in terms of prioritising the challenges or scope of the dangers for agriculture and food systems of the future. This white paper is a collective work that aims to address the question of digital technology in agriculture as a balanced whole and its chapters are sequenced and interconnected in a way that allows all aspects to be covered. Each section should therefore be considered in perspective of the others, and using them in isolation without referring to the whole could present an unbalanced view