Key Trends that Determine Digital Transformation in Agriculture The Potential of Small and Medium Farms in Russia

International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, 2019.

Hakobyan A., Korsgard I. K., Meng Y., Bakalova I., Gorbacheva A.

The Russian government has set a very ambitious target for the development of the agriculture sector. The government aims to double agri-food exports in the next seven years—to US$45 billion, from around US$23 billion in 2018. While prerequisites for doubling agri-food exports have been established in recent years, it is important to recognize that the agricultural development of the past decade has been achieved from a very low foundation, predominantly by expanding commodity production. Renewed attention to high-value agriculture has been paid only in recent years, especially after the food embargo, which stimulated investments in the domestic production of high-value agri-food products to replace imports. If a new agricultural transformation is to take place, it will have to be based on the scale-up of modern technologies, agricultural innovation, and a significant boost to high-value production. Digital technology adoption and scale-up would play an important role in this agricultural transformation. This report discusses four trends that determine digital technology adoption or digital agriculture transformation in Russia: (1) food consumption, consumer, or market trends; (2) production or on-farm trends; (3) digital technology trends; and (4) policy trends relevant to digital agriculture.

Keywords: сельское хозяйство, государственная политика, agriculture, цифровая трансформация, government policy, digital transformation