Does Precision Technologies Adoption Contribute to the Economic and Agri-Environmental Sustainability of Mediterranean Wheat Production? An Italian Case Study

Abstract

The European Green Deal has set a concrete strategic plan to increase farm sustainability. At the same time, the current global challenges, due to climate change and fuels and commodity market crises, combined with the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing war in Ukraine, affect the need for quality food and necessitate the reduction of negative external effects of agricultural production, with fair remuneration for the farmers. In response, precision agriculture has great potential to contribute to sustainable development. Precision agriculture is a farming management system that provides a holistic approach to managing the spatial and temporal crop and soil variability within a field to improve the farm’s performance and sustainability. However, farmers are still hesitant to adopt it. On these premises, the study aims to evaluate the impacts of precision agriculture technologies on farm economic, agronomic, and environmental management by farmers adopting (or not) these technologies, using the case study method. In detail, the work focuses on the period 2014–2022 for two farms that cultivate durum wheat in central Italy. The results suggest that the implementation of precision technologies can guarantee economic and agri-environmental efficiency. The results could serve as a basis for developing a program to start training in farms as well as to suggest policy strategies.