Sporirea competitivității în sectorul agricol prin tehnologie: de la tradiții spre agricultura 4.0

The growth of the population on Earth, increasing demand for affordable food, rising costs of production factors, labour shortage in farming; all these lead to huge transformations in the agricultural sector. Artificial intelligence is increasingly applied in precision agriculture and the robotization of farming process. Similarly, block-chain technologies contribute towards increasing the efficiency of agribusiness management and ensuring the products traceability. The purpose of this research is to identify the main trends at the global level in the field of technologies that have a decisive impact on increasing agricultural productivity and competitiveness, as well as to understand how much the Republic of Moldova is integrated in these trends. The research methodology was focused on the analysis of the works regarding the impact of technologies on agricultural competitiveness, in-depth interviews with agricultural producers and technology suppliers from the Republic of Moldova, as well as the study of online sources showing how the respective technologies are implemented. Although the Republic of Moldova is not among the pioneers in terms of the development of intelligent solutions for agriculture, there are solid premises in the country for an accelerated transition to Agriculture 4.0.