ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Land, Livelihoods and Food Security
Volume 9 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2025.1624753
This article is part of the Research TopicFuture Paths for Local and Alternative Food SystemsView all 6 articles
Behavioral profile of farmers in the adoption of agriculture 4.0 technologies in the agri-food system: a case study in Brazil
Provisionally accepted
Franco da Silveira1*
Ricardo Gonçalves de Faria Corrêa2
Ismael Cristofer Baierle2
Rafael Landaverde3
Jayme Garcia Arnal Barbedo1- 1Embrapa Digital Agriculture, Campinas, Brazil
- 2Federal University of Rio Grande, Santo Antônio da Patrulha, Brazil
- 3Texas A&M, College Station, United States
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Global concerns about food security have driven significant progress in the agri-food system, which is undergoing transformative changes through the adoption of emerging technologies. This shift, known as the fourth agricultural revolution or agriculture 4.0, requires the transition from traditional to modern systems to address future environmental and production challenges.However, to fully benefit from agriculture 4.0, it is essential to understand and overcome the barriers to its adoption. In Brazil, this transition is still emerging and marked by uncertainties, with limited understanding of the obstacles involved. Given this scenario, the objective of this research is to analyze the behavioral profile of Brazilian farmers in the adoption of agriculture 4.0 technologies in the agrifood system. A sample composed of 198 Brazilian farmers from the state of Rio Grande do Sul was analyzed regarding their perception of the barriers that hinder the adoption of any or no agriculture 4.0 technology. The perception of importance was measured using the Likert scale. This data set was divided into two groups of farmers: TAF -Technology Adopter Farmer, and NTAF -Non-Technology Adopter Farmer. Kendall Correlation and Analysis of Variance were also performed on the collected data. The study proposes strategies to address the most relevant barriers identified. Although focused on Brazil, the findings reflect common challenges in other regions and offer insights for stakeholders seeking to expand agriculture 4.0 adoption. The results support the development of tailored strategies to promote inclusive access to technology, particularly for marginalized or lessresourced farmers, and guide more assertive decision-making in regions where such technologies are still underutilized.
Keywords: Digital agriculture, Agriculture 4.0, Emerging technology, Farmers, Digital technologies, Agri-Food system
Received: 07 May 2025; Accepted: 25 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 da Silveira, Corrêa, Baierle, Landaverde and Barbedo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Franco da Silveira, Embrapa Digital Agriculture, Campinas, Brazil
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