Adoption of smart farming technologies in field operations: A systematic review and future research agenda

The agriculture sector, worldwide, faces grand challenges that significantly threaten food security and environmental sustainability. Smart farming technologies (SFTs) have emerged as a promising solution to mitigate these challenges and achieve the balance between productivity increment and environment safety, yet their adoption rate remains relatively low and fragmented. Extant literature, consequently, has extensively investigated and discussed the factors that affect the adoption of SFTs. Although some prior reviews have attempted to assemble previous discourse concerning the adoption of SFTs, they fell short in offering a comprehensive, structural, and focal overview. Hence, this paper reviews the literature around the adoption of SFTs with a specific focus on software and/or hardware technologies that are usually utilized to manage in-field agricultural activities. Using a framework-based systematic review, the paper synthesizes findings from 182 empirical studies to provide an in-depth and retrospective overview of the main theories, characteristics, contexts, and methods. The paper also demonstrates a state-of-the-art integrative framework of the main drivers of and barriers to the adoption of SFTs. Finally, the paper suggests future pathways for prospective scholars to advance our knowledge and understanding of the phenomenon of SFTs adoption.