Behind the investments made in connected agriculture, it is the gaps in adoption between sectors, between farm sizes, and between geographical areas that determine the reality on the ground. Measuring these gaps allows us to understand where the barriers lie and which segments are driving the growth of connected agricultural equipment.
European Data Act and access to agricultural equipment data
A factor rarely associated with agricultural market trends is currently redefining the rules of the game: the European Data Act. This regulation grants users of connected products, including agricultural machinery, a right to access the data generated by their equipment. The operator can now demand the transmission of this data to a third party of their choice.
This design obligation concerns both raw and pre-processed data. Not all proprietary algorithms of manufacturers are covered: the regulation clearly distinguishes between data from sensors and that produced by protected algorithmic processing. For a farmer equipped with soil sensors or connected weather stations, this means they can retrieve moisture or temperature readings without necessarily accessing the supplier’s predictive model.
The transition between cloud service providers is also regulated. Until January 12, 2027, switching fees may still be charged, but limited to costs directly related to migration. After this date, cloud provider switching fees will be eliminated.
For farms that centralize their production data on a third-party platform, this deadline changes the balance of power with agricultural software publishers. Platforms like moovement.fr illustrate this logic of data circulation among industry players.
Sensors and agricultural robots: disparities in adoption by sector
The adoption of connected technologies does not progress at the same pace everywhere. Major cereal crops concentrate a significant share of investments in sensors and decision-support tools. Livestock farming represents another important area of adoption, with milking robots, connected collars for health monitoring, and feeding automation.
Robotization in livestock farming faces a documented practical constraint: autonomous mobile robots cannot move freely on public roads or between distant plots. This limitation hinders deployment in structures with fragmented land, which affects a notable proportion of French farms.
| Segment | Trend | Most dynamic region |
|---|---|---|
| Smart irrigation | Substantial growth expected | Asia-Pacific (highest growth) |
| Connected livestock | Notable progression | Europe (historical adoption) |
The Asia-Pacific region shows the fastest growth, driven by public policies for agricultural modernization and demographic pressure on yields. North America remains the largest market by value, with a high concentration of players.
Smart irrigation: the segment that accelerates
Among the applications of connected agriculture, smart irrigation stands out for its particularly strong growth dynamic. Soil moisture sensors combined with automated control systems allow for water inputs to be adjusted plot by plot.
Smart irrigation reduces water consumption while stabilizing yields. In regions facing increasing water restrictions, this argument goes beyond mere economic optimization to become a condition for accessing the resource.
Connectivity and farm size: the agricultural digital divide
Connectivity remains unevenly distributed according to farm size. Larger structures have the investment capacity and production volume necessary to make expensive connected equipment profitable. Smaller farms, on the other hand, struggle to justify the purchase of sensors or weather stations, as the return on investment only becomes apparent beyond a certain threshold of area or livestock.
LPWAN (Low Power Wide Area Network) telecommunications networks have partially removed a technical barrier by enabling data transmission over long distances with low energy consumption. However, network coverage in rural areas remains heterogeneous, and some isolated plots still lack reliable connectivity.
- Large farms invest in comprehensive software suites integrating sensors, decision-support tools, and data management platforms
- Intermediate farms often adopt one or two targeted tools (weather station, moisture sensor) without overall integration
- Small structures remain largely behind, hindered by entry costs and the lack of suitable network coverage
The size of the farm directly determines the level of digital equipment. This observation, documented by several industry analyses, suggests that targeted public aid for small structures could modify the adoption curve more effectively than a general decrease in sensor prices.
Agricultural data and interoperability: a sovereignty issue for operators
Beyond the equipment, the question of ownership and portability of agricultural data now structures equipment choices. An operator investing in a closed ecosystem (sensors, management software, cloud platform from the same manufacturer) risks becoming captive if commercial conditions change or if the provider disappears.
The European Data Act provides a framework, but interoperability between systems remains largely insufficient. Each sensor manufacturer uses different data formats, and gateways between platforms are rare. A farmer wishing to cross-reference data from their milking robot with that from their pasture sensors often has to resort to manual exports or custom developments.
This fragmentation weighs on operators’ ability to fully leverage their digital investments. Field data exists, sensors are operational, but the lack of common standards prevents their valorization at the farm level. The connected agriculture market will reach its growth projections more quickly if interoperability progresses at the same pace as hardware deployment.
