Digital agriculture in Canada: Can technology turn farming potential into productivity?

Canada’s position as an agricultural power has traditionally rested on its land, commodities and export capacity. Increasingly, however, its competitiveness will also depend upon data. Across Canadian agriculture, digital technologies are changing how crops are monitored, machinery is operated and production decisions are made. Artificial intelligence (AI), satellite positioning, drones, robotics, connected sensors and increasingly autonomous equipment are moving farm management towards a model built around continuous measurement, analysis and prediction.

The economic stakes are considerable. According to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the country’s agriculture and agri-food system employed 2.3 million people and generated C$149.2 billion, around 7 per cent of Canadian gross domestic product, in 2024. Primary agriculture itself contributed C$31.7 billion and supported 223,000 jobs. Digital agriculture offers one route to improving the productivity and resilience of this economically important system. The question is whether Canada is converting its scientific and technological strengths into widespread commercial adoption.

What does a digital farm look like?

Digital agriculture is not a single technology. It is an interconnected system through which machinery, sensors, software and communications networks generate and exchange information. At field level, automated guidance can improve the accuracy of agricultural operations. Soil testing, satellite imagery and remotely piloted aircraft can provide information about soil conditions and crop development. Geographic information system mapping can reveal spatial variations, while variable-rate equipment enables inputs such as seed, fertiliser and agricultural chemicals to be applied at different rates.

The scale of existing adoption is significant, although it is far from universal. According to Statistics Canada’s analysis of the 2021 Census of Agriculture, 95,713 farms used at least one of eight selected technologies in 2020, representing 50.4 per cent of Canadian farms. Soil testing was reported by 32 per cent, automated guidance by 26.8 per cent, variable-rate applications by 16.1 per cent and GIS mapping by 13.2 per cent. Only 3.6 per cent reported using drones.

These figures require careful interpretation. They do not indicate that half of all Canadian farms are highly automated or digitally integrated. The Census category encompasses technologies ranging from soil testing to fully robotic milkers and greenhouse equipment.

Some technologies are nevertheless expanding rapidly. Automated guidance was used by 26.8 per cent of Canadian farms in 2020, up from 20.5 per cent in 2015. Saskatchewan recorded the highest rate, at 47.6 per cent, with Statistics Canada linking this partly to the province having the country’s largest number of oilseed and grain farms.

Robotic milking has also moved beyond the experimental stage. Statistics Canada recorded 2,197 farms using fully robotic milkers in 2020, more than twice the 1,063 recorded in 2015. Among farms classified as dairy cattle and milk production, adoption increased from 8.9 per cent to 20.2 per cent over the period. Automation is also attracting government support. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada has highlighted robotics increasing producitvity, illustrating how agricultural technology is moving from development towards practical farm applications.

Research institutions, meanwhile, are tackling technically demanding agricultural jobs. The University of Guelph has developed a tomato picking robot, demonstrating the potential application of AI and robotics to controlled agricultural environments. This, and the other developments, demonstrate technological capability. They do not, by themselves, prove that digital agriculture has transformed the national farming economy.

Is Canada exceeding expectations?

On balance, Canada is progressing, but there is evidence that adoption is failing to realise the technology’s full potential. A 2025 report from the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute describes the country’s digital-agriculture ecosystem as fragmented. Its analysis finds that larger operations are better positioned to adopt new technologies, while barriers include poor rural connectivity, unclear returns on investment and concerns surrounding data stewardship. The Institute consequently concludes that Canadian adoption levels remain relatively low compared with global peers. Its assessment calls for digital agriculture to receive greater strategic attention in Canadian agricultural policy.

The Statistics Canada figures support this divided picture. In 2020, at least one selected technology was used by 86.9 per cent of farms in the C$1 million to C$1.99 million revenue category. By comparison, adoption among farms reporting between C$1 and C$9,999 in revenue stood at 20.6 per cent. This does not mean that every small farm requires the technologies employed by a large grain operation. Different production systems have different requirements. It does, however, demonstrate a substantial association between revenue class and reported technology adoption.

The Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute estimates that digital-agriculture tools already available to producers have the potential to unlock between C$750 million and C$1.5 billion in additional annual net revenue over the next decade. This represents potential rather than realised economic performance, but it indicates the scale of the opportunity identified by the Institute.

One argument for agricultural automation is the continuing difficulty of filling some jobs. The latest Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada labour data show that crop production had a job-vacancy rate of 3.1 per cent in 2025, slightly above the 2.9 per cent recorded across the Canadian economy. This represented an improvement from 2024, when the corresponding figures were 4.0 and 3.3 per cent.

Agricultural automation should not automatically be framed as replacing workers. The economic case can also include applying technology to activities where employers face recruitment constraints, as well as attempting to increase the productivity of available labour. The calculation nevertheless remains dependent on the individual farm. The Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute identifies unclear rates of return on investment as one factor slowing adoption.

The next phase: Integration rather than invention

Canada’s next digital-agriculture phase is likely to be defined by the integration of individual technologies. Sensors, imagery, mapping and connected machinery can produce increasing quantities of agricultural data. Turning these data into economically useful decisions presents the next opportunity for software and AI, while robotics and automation provide ways to translate some digital decisions into physical activities.

Yet greater digital dependency brings additional challenges. The Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute highlights rural connectivity and distrust surrounding data-stewardship policies among the obstacles to wider Canadian adoption. This shifts the policy question beyond simply encouraging farmers to purchase more technology. Connectivity, confidence in data governance, demonstrable economic returns and the ability of farms of different sizes to access useful technology all become important components of digitalisation.

Canada has an economically important agricultural system, significant technology adoption and clear opportunities for further digitalisation. Its central problem appears to lie less with the existence of technology than with its diffusion through the agricultural economy. This is where policy is likely to become increasingly important. The Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute reports that the 2023-2028 Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership did not make digital agriculture an area of focus and recommends giving the adoption and effective use of digital technologies greater strategic importance in the next federal-provincial-territorial agricultural policy framework.

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