IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/faoaes/330793.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Automation and social impacts: winners and losers

Author

Listed:
  • Charlton, Diane
  • Hill, Alexandra E.
  • Taylor, J. Edward

Abstract

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. This working paper was developed as a background document for the FAO report "The State of Food and Agriculture 2022 – Leveraging automation in agriculture for transforming agrifood systems" (https://doi.org/10.4060/cb9479en).

Suggested Citation

  • Charlton, Diane & Hill, Alexandra E. & Taylor, J. Edward, 2022. "Automation and social impacts: winners and losers," ESA Working Papers 330793, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Agricultural Development Economics Division (ESA).
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:faoaes:330793
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.330793
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/330793/files/cc2610en.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.330793?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Huffman, Wallace E., 2012. "The Status of Labor-Saving Mechanization in U.S. Fruit and Vegetable Harvesting," Choices: The Magazine of Food, Farm, and Resource Issues, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 27(2), pages 1-7.
    2. Aparajita Goyal, 2010. "Information, Direct Access to Farmers, and Rural Market Performance in Central India," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 2(3), pages 22-45, July.
    3. Charlton, Diane & Taylor, J. Edward & Vougioukas, Stavros & Rutledge, Zachariah, 2019. "Innovations for a Shrinking Agricultural Workforce," Choices: The Magazine of Food, Farm, and Resource Issues, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 34(2), May.
    4. Marc F. Bellemare, 2018. "Contract farming: opportunity cost and trade†offs," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 49(3), pages 279-288, May.
    5. Marc F. Bellemare & Lindsey Novak, 2017. "Contract Farming and Food Security," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 99(2), pages 357-378.
    6. Christiaensen, Luc & Rutledge, Zachariah & Taylor, J. Edward, 2021. "Viewpoint: The future of work in agri-food," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    7. Voss, Rachel C. & Jansen, Tony & Mané, Bacary & Shennan, Carol, 2021. "Encouraging technology adoption using ICTs and farm trials in Senegal: Lessons for gender equity and scaled impact," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    8. David Lagakos, 2016. "Explaining Cross-Country Productivity Differences in Retail Trade," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 124(2), pages 579-620.
    9. Liang Lu & Thomas Reardon & David Zilberman, 2016. "Supply Chain Design and Adoption of Indivisible Technology," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 98(5), pages 1419-1431.
    10. Shang, Linmei & Heckelei, Thomas & Gerullis, Maria K. & Börner, Jan & Rasch, Sebastian, 2021. "Adoption and diffusion of digital farming technologies - integrating farm-level evidence and system interaction," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    11. Chege, Christine G.K. & Andersson, Camilla I.M. & Qaim, Matin, 2015. "Impacts of Supermarkets on Farm Household Nutrition in Kenya," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 394-407.
    12. Bart Minten & Seneshaw Tamru & Ermias Engida & Tadesse Kuma, 2016. "Transforming Staple Food Value Chains in Africa: The Case of Teff in Ethiopia," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(5), pages 627-645, May.
    13. Zeng, Yiwu & Jia, Fu & Wan, Li & Guo, Hongdong, 2017. "E-commerce in agri-food sector: a systematic literature review," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 20(4), February.
    14. Tauman, Y & Weiss, Y, 1987. "Labor Unions and the Adoption of New Technology," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 5(4), pages 477-501, October.
    15. Guy Michaels & Ferdinand Rauch & Stephen J. Redding, 2012. "Urbanization and Structural Transformation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 127(2), pages 535-586.
    16. Mas, Ignacio & Radcliffe, Dan, 2011. "Scaling mobile money," Journal of Payments Strategy & Systems, Henry Stewart Publications, vol. 5(3), pages 298-315, September.
    17. Adu-Baffour, Ferdinand & Daum, Thomas & Birner, Regina, 2018. "Can Big Companies’ Initiatives to Promote Mechanization Benefit Small Farms in Africa? A Case Study from Zambia," Discussion Papers 273521, University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF).
    18. Filipski, Mateusz & Aboudrare, Abdellah & Lybbert, Travis J. & Taylor, J. Edward, 2017. "Spice Price Spikes: Simulating Impacts of Saffron Price Volatility in a Gendered Local Economy-Wide Model," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 84-99.
    19. Christine Moser & Christopher Barrett & Bart Minten, 2009. "Spatial integration at multiple scales: rice markets in Madagascar," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 40(3), pages 281-294, May.
    20. Martin, Philip L. & Taylor, J. Edward, 2003. "Farm Employment, Immigration, and Poverty: A Structural Analysis," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 28(2), pages 1-15, August.
    21. Ogutu, Sylvester Ochieng & Ochieng, Dennis O. & Qaim, Matin, 2020. "Supermarket contracts and smallholder farmers: Implications for income and multidimensional poverty," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    22. Hermanus Jacobus Smidt & Osden Jokonya, 2022. "Factors affecting digital technology adoption by small-scale farmers in agriculture value chains (AVCs) in South Africa," Information Technology for Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(3), pages 558-584, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nuthalapati, Chandra S.R. & Sutradhar, Rajib & Reardon, Thomas & Qaim, Matin, 2020. "Supermarket procurement and farmgate prices in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    2. Ochieng, Dennis O. & Ogutu, Sylvester O., 2022. "Supermarket contracts, opportunity cost and trade-offs, and farm household welfare: Panel data evidence from Kenya," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    3. Ogutu, Sylvester Ochieng & Ochieng, Dennis O. & Qaim, Matin, 2020. "Supermarket contracts and smallholder farmers: Implications for income and multidimensional poverty," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    4. Junichi Yamasaki, 2017. "Railroads, Technology Adoption, and Modern Economic Development: Evidence from Japan," ISER Discussion Paper 1000, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University.
    5. Stefano Ciliberti & Simone Del Sarto & Angelo Frascarelli & Giulia Pastorelli & Gaetano Martino, 2020. "Contracts to Govern the Transition towards Sustainable Production: Evidence from a Discrete Choice Analysis in the Durum Wheat Sector in Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-14, November.
    6. Sylvester Ochieng Ogutu & Theda Gödecke & Matin Qaim, 2020. "Agricultural Commercialisation and Nutrition in Smallholder Farm Households," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 71(2), pages 534-555, June.
    7. Diane Charlton & Marcelo Castillo, 2021. "Potential Impacts of a Pandemic on the US Farm Labor Market," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 43(1), pages 39-57, March.
    8. Ochieng, Dennis O. & Veettil, Prakashan C. & Qaim, Matin, 2017. "Farmers’ preferences for supermarket contracts in Kenya," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 100-111.
    9. Ton, Giel & Vellema, Wytse & Desiere, Sam & Weituschat, Sophia & D'Haese, Marijke, 2018. "Contract farming for improving smallholder incomes: What can we learn from effectiveness studies?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 46-64.
    10. Viet Hoang & Vinh Nguyen, 2023. "Determinants of small farmers' participation in contract farming in developing countries: A study in Vietnam," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(3), pages 836-853, July.
    11. Hailemariam Ayalew & Dagim G. Belay, 2020. "The Ethiopian Commodity Exchange and Spatial Price Dispersion: Disentangling Warehouse and Price Information effects," IFRO Working Paper 2020/01, University of Copenhagen, Department of Food and Resource Economics.
    12. Awal Abdul‐Rahaman & Gazali Issahaku & Wanglin Ma, 2023. "Agrifood system participation and production efficiency among smallholder vegetable farmers in Northern Ghana," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(3), pages 812-835, July.
    13. Bellemare, Marc F. & Bloem, Jeffrey R., 2018. "Does contract farming improve welfare? A review," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 259-271.
    14. Ruml, Anette & Debela, Bethelhem Legesse & Qaim, Matin, 2021. "The effects of contract farming on diets and nutrition in Ghana," 2021 Allied Social Sciences Association (ASSA) Annual Meeting (Virtual), January 3-5, 2021, San Diego, California 307959, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    15. Arouna, Aminou & Michler, Jeffrey D. & Lokossou, Jourdain C., 2021. "Contract farming and rural transformation: Evidence from a field experiment in Benin," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    16. Anette Ruml & Matin Qaim, 2021. "New evidence regarding the effects of contract farming on agricultural labor use," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 52(1), pages 51-66, January.
    17. Pierluigi Montalbano & Rebecca Pietrelli & Luca Salvatici, 2017. "Market chain participation and food security: the case of the Ugandan maize farmers," Working Papers 2/17, Sapienza University of Rome, DISS.
    18. Bellemare, Marc F. & Lee, Yu Na & Novak, Lindsey, 2021. "Contract farming as partial insurance," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    19. Ogutu, Sylvester Ochieng & Goedecke, Theda & Qaim, Matin, 2017. "Agricultural Commercialization and Nutrition in Smallholder Farm Households," GlobalFood Discussion Papers 257242, Georg-August-Universitaet Goettingen, GlobalFood, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Agribusiness; Agricultural and Food Policy; Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:faoaes:330793. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/faoooit.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.