Digital agriculture: How patents help to ensure sustainable food security

The European Patent Office (EPO) has launched a series of initiatives to measure and encourage innovation in digital agriculture across the EU. Emma Cuillery outlines the key findings and explains the important role of digital technologies and patents in ensuring sustainable food security. In September 2025, the EPO published an analysis of digital farming technologies and launched a new technology platform to capture the latest innovations in digital agriculture and follow the evolution of digitalisation in the sector.  

Digital agriculture aims to shed light on how such technologies can contribute to sustainably satisfying the growing demand for food production. With a world population set to exceed ten billion inhabitants by 2050, agriculture faces a double challenge: to produce more while reducing its ecological footprint. The EPO’s report ‘Digital agriculture: Towards sustainable food security’, reveals how cutting-edge technologies are profoundly transforming agricultural practices to meet these challenges. 

Digital agriculture and patents

Digital agriculture uses information and communication technologies (ICTs), artificial intelligence (AI), sensing and automation, and data systems to make agriculture more accurate, sustainable and profitable. It allows each plant or animal to be treated individually, thus optimising inputs (water, fertilisers, pesticides...) and reducing environmental impacts. 

The EPO’s analysis of nearly 270,000 patent families (among 400,000 patent applications from EPO databases and collected from more than a hundred patent offices) shows that innovation in digital agriculture has accelerated markedly since 2012, with a compound annual growth rate of 9.4%, three times higher than the average for other technology fields.  

Large agricultural machinery groups such as John Deere (US), CNH Industrial (Netherlands/UK), Claas (Germany), Kubota (Japan) and Amazonen Werke (Germany) dominate innovation, joined by startups and universities active in cross-cutting technologies (imaging, AI, robotics and drones). 

EPO member states have always been very successful in the field of digital agriculture and have remained the main applicants for patents (more specifically international patent families) in this area throughout the period 2000-2022. However, Asian applicants recorded the highest growth in patent filings (again in terms of patent family) in the field of digital agriculture (+13.1%) according to the report, overtaking North American applicants in 2020. Latin America, driven by Brazil and Mexico, also posted a notable increase in filings (+10.8%), illustrating the global diffusion of innovations. 

Uncovering 12 main technology areas

The report distinguishes 12 major areas for patents in digital agriculture, divided into four groups: 

• Crop agriculture: Soil preparation and maintenance, sowing and fertilisation, harvesting, post-harvest loss reduction, forestry. 
• Artificial growing conditions: Greenhouses and growing media (eg, hydroponics, artificial environments). 
• Livestock: Animal management, automated milking systems. 
• Supporting technologies: Precision irrigation, pest control, climate modification.  

Source: Digital agriculture: Towards sustainable food security, EPO 

These areas of digital agriculture all benefit from common digital technologies: 

• Sensors and imaging: They measure key parameters (humidity, pH, nutrients, animal temperature, behaviours) in real time, allowing precise and preventive management. Example: detecting water stress in a plant before the symptoms are visible to the naked eye. 
• AI and data analysis: Machine learning algorithms cross-reference sensor, weather and market data to provide concrete recommendations (sowing date, crop rotations, animal rations). This transforms complex volumes of data into operational decisions. 
• Automation and robotics: Autonomous machines (tractors, harvesters, robotic arms, milking robots) perform tasks with high precision, freeing up time and reducing labour costs. 
• Drones: They allow high-resolution aerial monitoring (maps for the state of crops, night monitoring of herds), speeding up decision-making by providing a global and rapid view of the field. 

The growth in the number of patent filings is especially relevant to the plant farming sector, with the number of patent families increasing sevenfold over the period 2000-2022. In particular, crop agriculture has benefited from innovations that allow farmers to automate tasks such as spraying and harvesting more accurately and efficiently. The use of drones and AI for real-time monitoring and predictive analysis of agricultural operations has also exploded since 2018. 

Benefits for sustainability

These technologies are not only aimed at increasing productivity, but also at reducing environmental impact and conserving natural resources through various strategies: 

1. Reduction in the use of chemical and water inputs 

• Water: Sensor-driven smart irrigation allows water to be delivered only where it is needed, at the right time, and in the right amounts. This limits waste and reduces pressure on groundwater. 
• Fertilisers: Precision fertilisation systems distribute nutrients for each plant or square meter, avoiding over-fertilisation and pollution of soils and waterways. 
• Pesticides: Thanks to sensors, drones and AI tools, farmers can detect diseases or infestations very early and apply treatments only to the affected areas, which drastically reduces the use of phytosanitary products. 

It is thus possible to obtain less diffuse pollution (nitrates, pesticides) and an agriculture that is more respectful of biodiversity. 

2. Soil reclamation and regeneration 

• The treatment of crop residues (burial, inoculation of microorganisms) improves the organic matter content and water retention of the soil. 
• Reducing tillage through robotics limits erosion and compaction. 
• Soil monitoring by sensors (pH, humidity, nutrients) makes it possible to adjust practices in real time to maintain fertility. 

Soils worked by such technologies may be able to store more carbon, contributing to climate change mitigation. 

3. Energy optimisation and new production models 

• Smart greenhouses and vertical farming: These systems use light, humidity and temperature in a controlled way, often with renewable energy. 
• Energy optimisation: Sensors reduce energy consumption by adapting heating, ventilation and lighting systems. 
• Local production: Vertical cultivation in urban areas reduces transport distances and thus CO₂ emissions. 

These technologies help to make agriculture less energy-intensive and better integrated into urban systems. 

4. New cultivation and plant protection practices 

• Hydroponics and aquaponics: Soilless crops associated with fish or shrimp farming, allowing nutrients to be recycled and less water used. 
• Sustainable substrates: Use of biodegradable substrates or absorbent polymers to reduce the use of artificial or non-renewable soils. 
• Biocontrol: Use of beneficial insects, bacteria and fungi to control pests, limiting the use of chemicals. 

These innovations allow agriculture to better improve the natural balance. 

5. Animal welfare and social sustainability 

• Sensors and cameras allow continuous monitoring of herds (health, feeding, behaviour). 
• Automated milking or feeding systems reduce stress and improve animal welfare. 
• Better health management limits the use of antibiotics, which is a crucial issue for public health. 

This makes it possible to practice more ethical and sustainable breeding. 

Challenges to overcome in digital agriculture

Digital agriculture is essential to double agricultural production by 2050 without increasing the area under cultivation. It helps to limit soil erosion, biodiversity loss and pollution. 

However, several obstacles remain:  

• High cost for small farmers: Digital equipment (sensors, drones, robots, AI software) requires significant investments that can only be absorbed by large farms. 
• Digital divide: Digital agriculture requires reliable access to the internet, data platforms and specialised training. However, in many rural areas, especially in developing countries, infrastructure is inadequate.  
• Lack of standardisation: Agricultural technologies are developed by multiple manufacturers and service providers. In the absence of common standards, systems may be incompatible with each other. The data collected risks remaining siloed, limiting its potential for global and interconnected exploitation. 
• Data privacy concerns: Digital agriculture relies on the massive collection of data (plots, yields, cultivation practices). Farmers fear that this strategic information will be used by large companies or platforms to their detriment. This hinders data sharing, which is essential to the development of AI and agricultural precision.  

Public policies, such as the 2022-2031 strategic programme of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the European initiatives SmartAgriHubs (innovation and experimentation hub for digital agriculture technology) and AgriDataSpace (concerning a common European space for the exchange of secure agricultural data), seek to remove these barriers and foster inclusive adoption. 

The importance of patents to sustainable food security 

Digital agriculture is emerging as a pillar of the global agroecological transition. Driven by a wave of patent-protected innovations and growing adoption across all regions, it is paving the way for more productive, sustainable and resilient agriculture. Ensuring equitable access to these technologies, encouraging digital training for farmers, and strengthening international cooperation will be key to success. 

To find out more about the role of patents in agriculture, including how to protect your own agricultural innovations, speak to your Novagraaf attorney or contact our specialists.  

Emma Cuillery is a Patent Engineer at Novagraaf Switzerland.