Rome, Italy | 12-13 June 2019

Agriculture is being transformed with digital technologies, ubiquity, portability and mobility anywhere and at any time (smartphones, Internet of Things, cloud-based services), smart and prediction technology (analytics and artificial intelligence) as well as interconnected data-driven systems (distributed data layer, blockchain, etc.). This has been increasingly improving production and productivity, ensuring faster time to market, operating a streamlined supply chain and reducing operational costs. However, there are potential drawbacks we need to address such as the cybersecurity and data protection, labour replacement and re-education, digital divide and the risk of increasing the concentration in the private sector. There is no doubt that agriculture digital transformation is here to stay, and it is not possible to continue thinking business as usual.

The seminar aims to foster an exchange among stakeholders(policy-makers, development partners, UN system, public and private sector, research and academia) to identify the challenges that the digital transformation brings to agriculture and rural systems, and explore pathways for assessing both the risk and opportunities from the digital transformation along the value chains and in rural areas; and the need for a strategy to increase digital maturity in agriculture.