Towards Incorporating Industry 4.0 Practices and Hybridized Jobs within the Agricultural Sector

Abstract

There is an ever-increasing desire for higher agricultural production, greater flexibility and better quality of crops – but doing this using less fossil fuel, less waste and in more ethical ways causing minimal environmental harm. The farming ecosystems are already notoriously fragile: failure of crops or a lack of labor can cause a farm to flounder – and these additional pressures may cause the practice of farming to be even more difficult. Industry 4.0 is on the rise – and indeed these technologies have found widespread adoption, to varying degrees, through the agricultural sector. But are these Industry 4.0 technologies for the greater good? What do these technologies mean to farming? What is the likely impact on faming-related jobs? These issues are explored in greater depth in this paper, where it is revealed that not all these technologies lead to massive job losses; they may rather lead to farm workers breaking away from ‘job lock’ by developing greater farming skills and becoming highly responsible and responsive elements of a robust farming ecosystem.