Agriculture and the Environment: Can Technology Really Change the Game?

The agricultural sector is one of the largest contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions, while simultaneously being one of the first to suffer the consequences of climate disruption: repeated droughts, late frost episodes, flooding, loss of biodiversity… Farmers are on the front lines, forced to adapt to an increasingly unpredictable environment with often limited resources.

Faced with these challenges, one question stands out: can agricultural robotics, automation, and AgTech help build a more sustainable agriculture? To answer this, we gave the floor to Corentin Leroux, Agricultural Technologies Project Manager at The Shift Project.

What is The Shift Project?

“The Shift Project is a think tank that aims to inform and influence the debate on climate-energy challenges. We are a general interest association. Our funding members are mostly companies. Guided by a requirement for scientific and technical rigor, our view of the economy is primarily physical and systemic.” More info: theshiftproject.org

Agricultural Technology Today: Real Advantages, But Limitations That Cannot Be Ignored

In recent years, the AgTech sector has experienced spectacular growth. Concretely, what does this cover? Drones that analyze crop conditions, connected sensors that measure soil moisture in real time, robots that weed without herbicides, smart irrigation systems that significantly reduce water consumption, and AI-based decision-support tools to anticipate plant diseases.

These innovations have a real and measurable impact, and yet, as we will see, they are not a magic answer to all of agriculture's environmental challenges.

The Shift Project Answers Our Questions

GOFAR: Is automation a solution for making agriculture more sustainable?

Corentin Leroux: “In the vast majority of cases, digital solutions in agriculture remain optimization and efficiency tools, but do not yet truly serve deep transformations of the current agricultural model. If sustainability is viewed in a fairly simplistic sense of reducing impacts, then current digital tools can indeed accompany the reduction of the impact of agricultural practices: limiting input applications, increasing the efficiency of inputs, and differentiating the distribution of inputs across plots.

But these tools do not directly challenge the major directions of the current agricultural model. It may not be up to digital tool developers alone to challenge this model, but they necessarily contribute to accelerating current practices by promoting solutions that are adapted to them. It is high time to clearly define what the agricultural model should look like by 2050 and, if there are to be digital tools to support this dynamic, these digital technologies must come to equip the agricultural systems we want to see emerge.”

💡 GOFAR's insight: The use of remote sensing and connected sensors has shown encouraging results in reducing pesticide use on certain pilot farms. A promising first step, but one that still needs to be scaled up more broadly.

GOFAR: Among all the innovations available today, do agricultural robotics and automation seem to you the most suitable for a farmer wishing to concretely reduce their carbon footprint today?

Corentin Leroux: “It all depends on what we are talking about. Speaking of robotics or automation in the broad sense is meaningless given the diversity of technologies on offer and the agricultural models they face. There is not 'one' but 'many' technologies with varying technological and energy intensities (sometimes for near-equivalent services). We cannot avoid a case-by-case approach to judge the relevance of any particular technology. For each use case, it is necessary to dig into the direct impacts (the impact the technology avoids), indirect impacts (the impact of the technology itself), and systemic impacts (second-order and other cascading impacts) of the technology being used.

More specifically regarding your question, I think there is still a lack of concrete feedback from operational use cases around robotic technologies.”

💡 GOFAR's insight: This is a crucial point. For example, an electric weeding robot can almost entirely eliminate herbicide use on a plot, with a carbon footprint far lower than conventional chemical treatments. But its manufacture, energy supply, and maintenance also carry an environmental cost that must be factored into the equation. A complete Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of each technology is therefore essential.

GOFAR: If these technologies are only accessible to some farmers, can we realistically hope for an environmental impact equal to the scale of the challenges?

Corentin Leroux: “Agricultural technologies are not neutral. Our worldview influences the way we develop and shape agricultural technologies. These technologies carry the values, emotions, and representations of those who created them. Once again, if digital technologies are simply seen as a way to reduce impacts in absolute terms, one could assume that applying them mainly to large farms will, from an accounting standpoint, more significantly limit the total impacts of agriculture, since a greater total number of hectares will be covered. That may already be an interesting direction, but these technologies will only limit the impacts of the current agricultural model.

The Shift Project does not take a position on the organizational model of farms to come. We mainly emphasize the physical constraints governing the agricultural system and caution against failing to think right now about an evolution of our production models.

To the extent that farm resilience also depends on the heterogeneity of production models, we believe that if digital technologies are relevant in specific case studies, they will need to be made more widely accessible, particularly in the least well-equipped technico-economic sectors, which it seems desirable to support by mobilizing and transferring technologies and resources (financial, organizational, etc.) from other well-studied agricultural systems.”

💡 GOFAR's insight: The accessibility of agricultural technologies is a central issue. Yet solutions do exist: public funding schemes, collaborative models, and initiatives led by sector players to make these technologies accessible to all farms. French farmers, don't miss our article to help you find funding for your agricultural machinery [MORE INFO]

GOFAR: On this June 5th, what essential message would you like to address to those who want to act for a more sustainable agriculture?

Corentin Leroux: “To go and read our report on the role of technological innovation in agriculture =)

📄 Read the full Shift Project report

The development and deployment of technologies in service of the decarbonization and adaptation of the agricultural sector must be planned over the long term, in line with the evolution of future agricultural systems. Initial 'no-regret' measures should be considered, setting aside technologies deemed too risky or incompatible with the sector's decarbonization objectives, at least until a more in-depth analysis has been able to dispel these risks.

You can find one of my late 2025 presentations where I attempt to step back and reflect on the subject.”

🎥 Watch the video presentation

Technology in Service of a Vision

What we take away from this exchange with Corentin is above all an invitation to nuance and clarity. Agricultural technology, whether robotics, automation, or AgTech, is a valuable aid. It makes it possible to reduce inputs, optimize water use, and limit pesticides. It supports farmers in their daily work and helps them cope with increasingly difficult climatic conditions.

But it cannot, on its own, fundamentally transform an agricultural model that must structurally evolve to be compatible with the climate objectives of 2050. Technology must be a tool in service of a vision and not an end in itself.

At GOFAR, this is precisely the philosophy that guides our approach: supporting players in the agricultural world with concrete solutions, tailored to their realities, while keeping the ultimate goal in mind: a more sustainable, more resilient agriculture that is accessible to all.

On this World Environment Day, we warmly thank Corentin Leroux of The Shift Project for his availability and the quality of his responses.

We look forward to seeing you soon for more articles on these issues and at FIRA USA where many of these solutions will be on display in action.