Assessing the social impacts of Digital Agriculture Technology Solutions: a practical tool

Digital Agriculture Technology Solutions (DATSs) can improve the sustainability of the agricultural sector. While most of the research on the impacts of DATSs is focused on the economic and environmental dimensions of sustainability, this work aims to understand the social benefits that DATSs have on farmers. Integrating top-down and bottom-up approaches, a Social Sustainability Assessment Framework for DATSs adoption was developed and subsequently applied in the form of a Social Self-Evaluation Tool, a questionnaire tested on 60 farmers across 20 European countries, with a heterogeneous composition in terms of sector, types of DATSs, agronomical context, and socio-economic background. The Framework and the Social Self-Evaluation Tool allowed for a deep investigation of the social impacts of DATSs in terms of labour evolution, education and learning, and generational change. The results demonstrated the positive effects of DATSs on the social sphere of sustainability, as well as the importance of integrating this type of social analysis in the evaluation of digital technologies in agriculture.