“Digital agriculture is advancing at an unprecedented pace, reshaping how we produce food in the face of pressing global challenges,”says António Campinos, Director of the European Patent Office (EPO).
Technology insight report
The European Patent Office has investigated trends in the numbers and types of patent families for inventions in Digital Agriculture. The results of this investigation have been compiled in a recently published report entitled DIGITAL AGRICULTURE - towards sustainable food security.The key finding in the report: until 2012 the average growth (CAGR) in the number of patent families (IPFs) in the field of Digital Agriculture (DA) kept pace with the average growth of all patent families, namely at 4.8%. Since 2012, however, the number of patent families in the field of Digital Agriculture has grown at a rate of 9.4%, which is no less than three times (!) faster.
Towards sustainable food security
This is also a noticeable trend in my own patent team, which has a lot of agricultural and horticultural clients. In a world with a growing population, climate challenges and a limited amount of land, the challenges faced by agriculture and horticulture are huge. Digitalisation plays a crucial role in tackling these challenges. By becoming increasingly data-driven growers are, for example, able to detect pests and diseases at an early stage, plan cultivation more accurately and respond to local events in real time, while at the same time using fewer resources such as water, fertilisers and pesticides.
Credit where credit is due
This results in wonderful, smart and ingenious inventions which often involve substantial investments that need to be recouped. It goes without saying therefore that it is advisable to make these exclusive to the company that did all the hard work by patenting them!
PS Fun fact: our Dutch pride and joy, Lely, has a place of honour in the report with the case study presented below.
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