The potential of variable-rate technology for sustainable intensification of European arable farming

Sustainable intensification of agriculture calls for reducing inputs while increasing yields. Variable-rate technology (VRT) enables the application of the right amount of resources at the right time and place to meet crop requirements. VRT remains relatively underutilized in European arable farming compared to Americas and Australia. Facilitating VRT adoption and other precision agricultural technologies in European arable farming requires understanding the pressing needs of farmers and proposing location-specific solutions to their problems. To address this gap, we conducted online surveys of experts in agricultural research, service, and primary production across seven European arable farming regions. Experts were asked to estimate the current and future adoption of VRT and to assess the role of relevant factors for adopting VRT in their regions. Furthermore, we asked about the challenges of fertilization, weed/pest control, and water management. Our results show a higher current and future VRT application for fertilization compared to weed/pest control and irrigation across all regions. The biggest barriers against VRT adoption in arable farming are cost, government regulations, and technology complexity. Moreover, our results show that VRT can more efficiently address the challenges of fertilizer application and weed/pest control, but has limited potential in addressing water management challenges, which need to be tackled by crop breeding, irrigation infrastructure, and water withdrawal rights. Our findings suggest that the low adoption of VRT in Europe is related to high cost and complexity of VRT, the substitute measures of VRT, and the limitation of VRT in addressing agroecological and policy-related challenges. Sustainable intensification thus requires a portfolio of technological, social, behavioral, and policy innovations. • Understanding the pressing needs of farmers and solutions to their problems. • Estimating the current and projected future adoption of variable-rate technology. • Exploring the drivers and barriers of variable-rate technology adoption. • Potential of variable-rate technology to address local arable farming challenges.