Authors: Alexia Gobert and Véronique Bellon-Maurel (INRAE)
Digital technologies are often presented as a way to improve agricultural efficiency, sustainability, and farm resilience. But do they always deliver? What are the real costs and benefits of farm digitalisation? These questions are examined in a new CODECS report developed by INRAE, which analyses the economic, environmental and social and human impacts of farm digitalisation.
How do farmers perceive digitalisation?
Based on 18 focus groups organised across CODECS Living Labs, the analysis highlights both positive expectations and reservations. Participants identified several perceived benefits of digitalisation, including:
- Efficiency gains through automation, real-time data, and improved planning,
- New business opportunities and closer links with markets and consumers,
- A more attractive image of farming, particularly for younger generations.
At the same time, several challenges and concerns were raised:
- Trust and governance issues, especially related to data use and dependence on technology providers,
- Time, skills and resource constraints, particularly for small and medium-sized farms,
- Economic risks and uncertainty, linked to investment costs and rapid technological change.
These results show that adoption depends not only on technical performance, but also on social, economic and institutional factors.
Measuring environmental impacts with Life Cycle Assessment
To complement stakeholder perceptions, the research applies a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach to quantify the environmental impacts of digital farming. The LCA compares two scenarios – before and after digitalisation – across 16 impact categories, including climate change, water use and toxicity. This method supports sustainability assessments at both farm and policy levels.
So far, around a dozen Living Labs have provided full quantitative data for environmental LCAs, and their assessments are currently underway. Other Living Labs contribute through partial or qualitative environmental analyses. A pilot case in viticulture from the Slovenian Smart Villages Network Living Lab illustrates how digital decision-support tools for crop protection can reduce input use, while also identifying new environmental hotspots, such as tractor use.
Assessing economic costs and benefits
The economic assessment combines online surveys, in-depth farm interviews and financial modelling tools, including budget analysis and Net Present Value (NPV) calculations. This approach allows farmers and advisors to:
- Identify investment and operating costs,
- Measure productivity and efficiency changes,
- Assess the long-term profitability of digital technologies.
Initial results indicate that digitalisation can improve economic performance, but only when cost structures, farm scale, skills and advisory support are aligned with farm conditions.
Understanding social and human costs and benefits
The research also examines the social and human dimensions of digital farming through a qualitative assessment. It explores how digital tools affect farmers’ well-being and mental workload, work organisation and time management, skills development, and social relations within farming communities.
Based on 24 interviews across 18 Living Labs, many farmers reported reduced physical strain, improved comfort and better work planning. However, some also described increased pressure related to constant connectivity, continuous system monitoring and greater technical responsibility. These changes can affect stress levels, perceived control over work and work–life balance.
These findings underline the importance of considering human and social aspects alongside economic and environmental outcomes.
What’s next?
The next step will be to combine the three evaluation dimensions into a multicriteria assessment framework, allowing interactions and trade-offs between economic performance, environmental impact and social sustainability to be analysed together.
Overall, CODECS research shows that digital farming can support efficiency, sustainability and rural attractiveness, provided that trust, governance, skills and access are addressed in parallel. By combining quantitative assessments with qualitative analysis, the project contributes to a balanced understanding of digitalisation in European agriculture.
