Precision agriculture as a driver for sustainable farming systems: State of art in litterature and research

In 2017, the food and beverages industry was reconfirmed as the European Union’s biggest manufacturing sector, in terms of employment, turnover and added value. However, almost all the companies are small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) showing a slow rate of adoption of innovations and precision agriculture technologies. With the advent of the digital age, new opportunities are opening for the agri-food SMEs to enhance their competitiveness through the application of technological innovations in the supply chain, from farm to fork. Given the wide range of available technology and its increasingly rapid development, the paper presents an overview of worldwide development and status of precision agriculture, starting from 2000 until to date. In dealing with the state-of-the-art, the paper confirms that technological applications in food production are of relevance in ensuring sustainable management of farming systems.