Roadmap to Precision Agriculture Under Circular Economy Constraints

Abstract

Today’s smart and sustainable agricultural enterprises are founded on the intercorrelation between Industry 4.0 (I4) technologies and circular economy (CE) fundaments. At the industrial level, it is mandatory to constrain the design, operation, and control of the next generation of manufacturing, logistics, and supply chain systems that respect economic, environmental, and social aspects. At the individual level, behaviours and preferences require re-do (as recycling) and a re-do-not (as rethinking) actions to reduce human inefficiencies and excesses in the economy and impacts on the environment. Both industrial and individual levels are responsible for the growth of a harmonious industry and society into a new I4–CE mandate intertwined with sustainable development concerns. Particularly, this paper reveals how the state-of-the-art I4 technologies could promote CE initiatives in the agriculture industry by addressing such technologies as a foundation for the so-called precision agriculture (PA). The outcomes of this paper are as follows: (a) address the mutually advantageous linkage between PA and CE; (b) detailed knowledge of the potential contributions of PA technologies to the regenerate, share, optimise, loop, virtualise, and exchange (ReSOLVE) as a CE model; (c) propose an action plan for future study integrating smart PA and CE principles based on green supply chain management theories.