How can we make technology stacks work for agriculture.

The UWA Centre for Agricultural Economics and Development supports Australia’s transition to low-emission agriculture. One of our latest contributions is a scoping study led by Dr Sarah Whitnall, funded through the Zero Net Emissions Agriculture CRC (ZNE-Ag CRC) and supported by Prof Marit Kragt.

The project examines the key challenge of integrating multiple novel technologies into farming businesses. While many technologies show strong potential for across emissions reduction, productivity, and/or decision-support, their combined adoption remains difficult. These integrated ‘technology stacks’ (also called ‘bundles’ or ‘packages’) are increasingly important as farming systems grow more complex, and producers navigate expanding technical and regulatory demands.

Dr Whitnall’s study aims to identify the factors that underpin successful adoption of technology stacks. Through a review of cases from agriculture and other sectors, complemented by stakeholder insights, the project will map the characteristics that enable multiple technologies to be effectively adopted together. It will also investigate the behavioural and operational influences shaping uptake.

The outcomes of this study will not only help the ZNE-Ag CRC when designing future research and investment, it will also help to build a clearer understanding of how technologies can operate in combination within real farming environments, and how future innovations can be designed with adoption in mind. It provides essential groundwork for supporting the sector’s longer-term transition to low-emission, resilient agricultural systems.

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For more information:

Dr Sarah Whitnall: sarah.whitnall@uwa.edu.au

ZNE-Ag CRC: https://zneagcrc.com.au/

ZNE-Ag CRC is funded by the Australian Government through the Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) Program and the contribution of Partners.