Technology Foresight: Anticipating Agricultural Applications.

Abstract

The term “foresight” has long been used to describe readiness to deal with long-term issues (especially on the part of governments). The term “Technology Foresight” took off in the 1990s when countries sought new policy tools to deal with problems in their science, technology, and innovation systems. Technology Foresight (TF) refers to the process involved in systematically attempting to look into the long-term future of science, technology, the economy, and society to identify the areas of strategic research and the emerging generic technologies likely to yield the greatest economic and social benefits (Pietrobelli and Puppato, 2016). Overall, TF studies provide strategic information for decision-making and long-term planning in science and technology, being used by governments, and organizations to prepare for the future. TF is different from technology forecasting. TF means a new future-oriented approach while Technology Forecasting is a traditional forward-looking approach developed in the 1950s in the USA. TF helps to shape the future of science and technology as well as society. TF is often seen as a set of tools for informing decisions about science, technology, and innovation (STI) priorities within established innovation systems (Miles et al., 2017). As the world faces a wide range of critical challenges, from conflicts and climate change to population growth, countries increasingly need to harness the right technologies to leverage comparative advantages, drive economic growth, and fulfil strategic needs. National-level TF is a vital tool for policymakers to identify domains of high importance or potential. This viewpoint outlines key imperatives for countries to ensure foresight best delivers value in a pragmatic, repeatable manner. In this article, we elaborate on TF for agriculture in the next 25 years. The foresight is based on recent trends in research in developed and developing countries. In Section 2, we focus on the most prevalent technologies of the 21 century. We anticipate the present and future application of disruptive technologies in agriculture in Section 3. Section 4 briefs on the challenges and opportunities of these emerging applications. Finally, we conclude in Section 5