From smart greenhouses to inclusive rose systems: Digital adoption, barriers and priority interventions in Ecuadorian export floriculture

CONTEXT Digital technologies are promoted for export horticulture, but their value in rose systems depends on how they connect crop management, postharvest quality, traceability and market coordination, and adoption capacity differs across producers. OBJECTIVE This article develops a systems framework for prioritizing inclusive digital interventions in export rose production, using Ecuadorian floriculture as a strategic case: which interventions matter most, how adoption varies across farm sizes, and under which conditions they reach heterogeneous producers. METHODS A mixed-methods design combined a structured synthesis of 40 scientific sources in three evidence tiers (17 direct floriculture, 6 transferable protected-horticulture, 17 systems and inclusion) plus 11 sectoral documents, with a survey of greenhouse rose producers ( n = 79), interviews with chain actors ( n = 9) and an expert panel ( n = 4). RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS Four domains emerged: crop-health early warning, irrigation and fertigation, postharvest quality and traceability, and digital commercialization. Digital adoption increased with farm size (index 1.1 to 4.1; Spearman ρ = 0.59, p < 0.001), but unevenly: differences were steep for postharvest quality records (15 to 72%) and digital sales platforms (15 to 84%), absent for smart greenhouses and crop-health AI, and confined to the largest farms for irrigation AI. Implementation cost (57.6%) and limited technical knowledge (55.6%) outranked connectivity (29.3%), and 81% were unaware of any public policy supporting digitalization. SIGNIFICANCE Digital inequality is both producer-specific and domain-specific. Inclusive digitalization requires differentiated pathways, service-scale rather than farm-scale provision, local model validation and transparent data governance.