“Multilateral development banks can significantly accelerate the adoption of digital agriculture”

Daniela Di Gianantonio is Head of Digital Agriculture at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia. She holds, among other degrees, an MBA from the University of Southern California. 

OPEC Fund Quarterly: What are the main challenges and opportunities facing digital agriculture at FAO? How is the landscape evolving and how is your institution adapting? 

Daniela Di Gianantonio: Digital agriculture in Europe and Central Asia is driven by expanding internet penetration, particularly in rural areas such as the Western Balkans. That is happening despite infrastructural challenges and internet gaps, especially in rural parts of Central Asia. Aging farming populations, rural outmigration and labor shortages heighten the demand for productivity through digitalization and automation. 

Additional drivers include rising input costs – such as energy and raw materials – triggered by the war in Ukraine, the need for sustainable resource use in the face of climate change and the necessity of meeting EU standards that require strict food safety controls. 

Despite this, the dominance of small, fragmented landholdings hinder the scalability of digital solutions, together with limited availability, adaptability and affordability of digital tools for smallholder farmers. On the demand side, farmers often lack awareness, skills and confidence in adopting these technologies, creating resistance to change. 

OFQ: How is digitalization revolutionizing agriculture? Can you share some concrete examples, including “home-grown” initiatives? 

DDG: Digitalization is revolutionizing agriculture by transforming traditional farming, agrifood supply chains and markets. It allows farmers to access information and advisory services digitally, as well as improving government administrative processes and sector monitoring. To help all stakeholders navigate the uses and applications of digital technologies in agriculture, the FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia has launched the AgriTech Observatory, a knowledge repository to navigate digital agriculture developments in the region. 

Regarding “home-grown” solutions, our regional digital agriculture program places significant emphasis on developing and supporting innovative digital solutions to enhance government capabilities. For example, FAO supported the development of Georgia’s National Animal Identification Registration and Traceability System, which allows the national food agency to track animal diseases efficiently, ensuring faster control and eradication, while documenting the full farm-to-plate path for food safety. This EU-compliant tool is being adapted as a digital public good in North Macedonia, Central America and Mauritius. 

Similarly, FAO’s Land Degradation Neutrality Decision Support System is a geospatial platform that is helping countries achieve sustainable land management by balancing natural capital gains and losses. Other technology solutions supported include the Farm Accountancy and Data Network in Montenegro and Albania, which tracks farm-level economic development; Armenia’s Farmer Registry, piloted for the grape value chain to improve planning and resource distribution; and the FAO Damage and Loss Assessment Tool, which aids governments in assessing agricultural damages during crises. At farmer level, we are piloting mobile apps such as animal feed calculators in Kazakhstan and insect recognition in Georgia. 

OFQ: When it comes to accelerating progress on SDG 2 – Zero Hunger, how important are partnerships? 

DDG: Partnerships are crucial for accelerating progress on SDG 2 – Zero Hunger, as they bring together diverse expertise, resources and perspectives to address the complex challenges of hunger, malnutrition and sustainable food systems. This is especially true in the development of digital agriculture, where research, education and private-sector collaboration are vital to driving the development and uptake of digital technologies. We have been building several partnerships under the FAO Digital Villages Initiative to leverage the digital innovation ecosystem for the benefit of rural communities. These include collaborations with the private sector to foster the adoption of digital technologies by rural communities, collaborations with innovation accelerators to co-design solutions with and for farmers and partnerships with academia to create demonstration plots showcasing the potential of digital tools in agriculture to students and stakeholders. 

OFQ: How can multilateral development banks help more? On what and where does the funding go furthest? 

DDG: Multilateral development banks can significantly accelerate the adoption of digital agriculture by providing financial support, technical assistance and strategic partnerships to bridge gaps in infrastructure, technology and capacities. They can invest in critical enablers like ICT infrastructure to provide meaningful rural connectivity. They can also support the creation of open data platforms and interoperable core information management systems, fund research and development for technology development, as well as funding innovation in sustainable and scalable digital solutions tailored to the needs of smallholder farmers. Last but not least, they can work to create enabling environments by supporting policy reforms and institutional capacity.