Digital and sustainable agricultural futures: sociotechnical imaginaries of twin transitions and emerging roles for science

Introduction Recently, the concept of twin transitions gained momentum in policy and scientific discourse about agrifood systems. In twin transitional processes, digital tools are leveraged to drive sustainability transformations, while sustainability thinking guides the development, diffusion, and use of digital technology. However, these transitions are characterized by high uncertainty about the futures they will lead agriculture into. Methods In the present study, following a sociotechnical imaginaries perspective and using data from a workshop attended by Greek researchers, farmers, and farm advisors, we pursued two objectives. First, to delineate the futures that these transitions might shape for agriculture. Second, to identify the roles that science has to play in these futures. Results Our results reveal the multiplicity of agri-digital and sustainable transitions, picturing futures that range from idealized states, where digital technology continuously supports the achievement of sustainability targets, to less optimistic scenarios, in which digitalization fails to improve agricultural sustainability or even to deliver on its promise to provide tangible benefits at the farm level. Discussion Science is called to respond to these futures by contributing to technology upgrading, developing low-end digital tools, monitoring and assessing the sustainability performance of agricultural digitalization, informing policy-making, and co-shaping problematizations about digitalization with societal actors.