Digital technologies such as mobile and remote-sensing devices are spreading in the agrifood sector. While large-scale farmers can deploy technologies for efficient farm management and improving productivity, small-scale farmers find it difficult to introduce them due to their costs. To avoid unnecessary investment, small-scale farmers need clear objectives when adopting digital technologies and to consider the balance between their costs and benefits.

To introduce digital technologies for adoption by small-scale farmers, the Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan, China Productivity Center (CPC), and APO Secretariat organized an online multicountry observational study mission on Digital Farming for Small-scale Farmers, 16–17 November. The study mission enabled participants to learn about successful models of digital technologies used on small-scale farms. It also helped them understand the importance of adopting those technologies for small-scale farms and how to select the appropriate ones for optimal farm management.

Forty-two participants from 12 APO members attended the study mission along with five resource persons from the ROC and Japan. The resource persons gave presentations covering intelligent transformation and personnel needs in the poultry sector in the ROC, globalized development of smart aquaculture by Taijiang Agricultural Biotechnology Co., Ltd., and best practices of smart rice farming in Japan. Participants also had the opportunity to review case studies on crop cultivation management, pest monitoring, biological control, and queen bee-free pollination in small greenhouses in the ROC.