Nicosia, Cyprus. Cyprus recorded one of the lowest rates of precision farming adoption in the European Union in 2023, with about 1 per cent of farms using the technology, Eurostat reported.
Across the EU, around 18 per cent of farms with utilised agricultural area used at least one precision farming technology or practice.
Digital farming in the EU
About 43 per cent of EU farms had internet access in 2023. Denmark, Germany, Slovakia, Latvia, the Czech Republic and Austria each recorded internet access rates above 90 per cent.
Farm management information systems, which are digital platforms used to manage farm operations, were used by around 11 per cent of EU farms. France had the highest rate of use, at about 60 per cent.
Precision technologies
Robotics adoption remained limited across the EU, with around 7 per cent of farms using robotic technologies.
Precision farming practices included robotics for applying plant protection products, band spraying, variable-rate techniques, precision crop monitoring and soil analysis.
While farms using precision farming represented a minority of all farms, they managed around 44 per cent of the EU’s total utilised agricultural area.
Land managed using precision farming
Luxembourg, Finland and Estonia recorded the highest shares of utilised agricultural area managed by farms using precision farming, with each exceeding 75 per cent.