Abstract
The article is being addressed to politicians, academics, media, and managers less familiar with the concepts Agriculture 4.0 and bioeconomy launched by the European Union and the German government for promoting research and development and the implementation of digital technologies and bio-based innovations in the agricultural sector. The programs upgrade the traditional common agricultural policy and enlarge the legal and institutional framework of the Acquis Communautaire. Millions of agricultural holdings in Europe are encouraged to use biomass, renewable energies, digital innovations, and high-tech machinery provided under the label of Industry 4.0. The strategies aim to achieve sustainable growth and competitiveness in agriculture, to secure self-sufficiency in food and energy production in Europe and to cover the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.
TopBackground
The term Agriculture 4.0 is used as an official label of the 2020 strategic program of the European Commission (EC) and the German Government for promoting the agricultural sector, rural areas and the nutrition industries to achieve sustainable growth (EU Commission, 2018 a).
The term Bioeconomy is defined by the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation of the EC as a new economic system based on the sustainable use of renewable biological resources such as crops, forests, fish, animals and micro-organisms to produce food, materials and energy (European Commission, 2017).
Agriculture 4.0 is an innovative program for the benefit of the agricultural sector that refers to the Industrie 4.0 strategy of the EC and the German Government to foster the digitization of the Manufacturing Industries (Price Waterhouse, 2015). It goes back to the idea of the advisor to German Chancellor Angela Merkel Jeremy Rifkin (2015), who recommends a Digital Revolution in Europe also in the agricultural sector (Rossner, E. 2015). Digital innovations from the Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) sector including Start-ups and high tech machinery from the Manufacturing Industries are to be implemented in the complete supply chain from animal production and the use agricultural land to food processing and distribution and finally to the selling to the consumers on cellular phone demand. Figure 1 presents the main technologies of Agriculture 4.0.
Figure 1. Basic Technologies of the Agriculture 4.0 concept
The European Commission’s Science and Knowledge Service (2016) being founded to evaluate the innovation program of the EC approves “New technologies and their adoption by EU farmers are key drivers in maintaining European agriculture competitive in a global world.” Agriculture 4.0 is also connected to the Bioeconomy program that was launched by the EC in 2012 (EU Commission, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, 2017). The EC Program Biotechnology and Life Sciences precedes the Bioeconomy concept as it was set up in 1982. The EC evaluates its former Biotechnology Strategy as “an important step towards a competitive and sustainable Knowledge Based Bio-Economy (KBBE).” The new strategy includes the traditional concept of Biotechnology, such as genes technology and all biotechnological applications across sectors in primary production, in industry and in the health sector described in detail by Patermann, C. and Aguilar, A. (2018).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Bio Energy: Is set up by biogas, bio-fuel, etc.
Bioeconomy: An official strategy to implement a new economic system based on the sustainable use of biological resources and is including the traditional concept of “biotechnology.”
Agriculture 4.0: A strategic concept to implement digital technologies and high-tech machineries and equipment in the agricultural sector and in the nutrition industries.
Bio Mass: Encompasses any biological material from agriculture and forestry and includes animal-based material as a product in itself or to be used as raw material for renewable energy such as bio gas or even 3 D printing.
Precision Farming: The use of digital equipment enabling farmers for a more efficient and precise use of seeds, fertilizer, and pesticides for crop plantation.
Renewable Energies: Are defined by solar, photovoltaic, wind, bio energy, etc.