Environmental, economic, and social impacts of precision agricultural technology: Convergences and divergences between theory and practice

Precision agriculture (PA) technologies are widely promoted for their potential to enhance sustainability, efficiency, and resilience in agricultural systems. However, few studies critically assess whether these promises hold in practice, particularly in rural contexts facing infrastructure and resource constraints. The main aim of this paper is to identify environmental, economic, and social (E-E-S) impacts of PA technologies in crop farming, and convergences and divergences between theory and practice. A literature review of E-E-S impacts of PA technologies was combined with an empirical assessment of a multi-robot sensor-based irrigation system deployed on a smallholder farm in the Isles of Scilly, a remote rural island community in the UK. By comparing the expectations documented in the literature with modelled impacts from the case study, this paper identifies areas of convergence and divergence between technological promise and real-world potential in a rural setting. The results reveal several trade-offs between literature expectations and the case study outcomes: although sensor-based irrigation reduced water demand by 23 %, the system's electricity use significantly increased, amplifying carbon emissions; anticipated labour savings were offset by the need for specialized supervision, raising operational costs; and while the literature often highlights community benefits, in practice the social impact remained limited in the case study, with no major changes expected in areas such as worker health and safety or systematic issues like dependency on platforms or agritech providers. This study contributes critical insights for rural social science into the conditions under which PA can support more context-responsive, equitable, and sustainable adoption, highlighting that realizing its full value requires attention not only to technical performance but also to energy trade-offs, cost-effectiveness, and broader societal impacts for smallholder and remote rural communities. • Combines literature review and case study to assess PA's impacts in rural areas. • Reveals where empirical outcomes align with/diverse from expectations in literature. • Multi robot irrigation system reduced water use, but increased energy demand. • Labour savings were offset by increased capital expenditure. • Social impacts remained limited for workers, with minor impacts on the community.