The Use of Farm Digital Tools in Crop Production in Wallonia: Situation, Key Points and Actors

This paper shows that the use of farm digital tools in crop production is already well spread in Wallonia. This evolution is supported by the public authorities, as well as by many private and public actors involved in this field, leading to a large supply of tools available to the farmers. However, 80% of available tools are not used, while farmers’ needs are far to be met. This is due to several constraints: the profitability of specific digital tools, the legal protection of personal data, the time consumption to learn how to use the new tools efficiently, the complexity of some tools, and the lack of interconnection among the new tools and also with the already existing ones. It finally appears that there is a need for a better adequation between supply and demand of farm digital tools, and also for better training facilities, though several structures are already active in this field.