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Transforming agriculture with digital automation












FAO. 2022. Transforming agriculture with digital automation. FAO Agricultural Development Economics Policy Brief, No. 54. Rome.




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    Policy brief
    Enabling inclusive agricultural automation 2022
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    Agricultural automation reshapes the labour market. In situations of rising wages and labour scarcity, agricultural automation can stimulate employment by allowing producers to expand production and by creating jobs along agrifood systems. Conversely, when labour is plentiful and subsidies lower the cost of automation, there is a risk of job displacement and unemployment, especially for poor and low-skilled workers. Governments should neither subsidize automation, nor restrict it. Instead, they should create an enabling environment for an inclusive process of agricultural automation that ensures access by marginalized groups such as women and small-scale producers, and focuses on building the knowledge and skills of the agricultural workforce to facilitate the transition to new jobs within and outside agriculture.
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    Policy brief
    The (continued) potential of motorized mechanization 2022
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    Motorized mechanization is an important form of agricultural automation and has the capacity to transform agriculture and rural livelihoods. Its benefits have resulted in a substantial increase in mechanization worldwide, although adoption has been uneven and particularly limited in sub-Saharan Africa. Agricultural mechanization has been so far dominated by large and heavy machinery, putting small-scale producers at a disadvantage due to their lower capacity to afford large, more costly, machinery that often does not suit their small, irregular, or hilly terrains. Moreover, such machinery contributed to environmental problems such as biodiversity loss, land degradation and soil erosion. Inclusive access to mechanization requires a conducive business environment through a range of (coherent) policy instruments and investments. Particularly for small-scale agricultural producers, it is important that machinery is tailored to local conditions through technological and institutional innovations.
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    Automation and social impacts: winners and losers
    Background paper for The State of Food and Agriculture 2022
    2022
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    Understanding the social implications of automation in agriculture, from tractors in low-income countries to high-tech artificial intelligence (AI) solutions found mostly in high-income countries, requires viewing technology change on farms within the broader context of the agricultural transformation and agrifood systems, as well as changing economic incentives to develop and adopt labour-saving technologies. This paper provides an overview of the social implications of automation in agriculture, focusing on labour and employment, and provides policy recommendations.

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