ABSTRACT
Agriculture is facing many challenges besides the Covid-19 pandemic and its aftermath. We have identified 20 main challenges including threatened biodiversity, sealing of arable land, climate change, lack of manpower and farm animal diseases. There are three main pathways to cope with these challenges: evolution, imitation, and innovation. We argue that challenges can be a driver of one of these: innovation. This is exemplified through a case from Australia, where the Covid-19 caused problems for the fruit industry resulting in robotics innovation. Agriculture has undergone some general innovation eras through history, and we are now approaching a new such era. This new era is characterized by (1) new crop and cultivation concepts, (2) field robotics, (3) fossil-free energy and products, (4) smart connected systems and (5) animal welfare technology systems. The magnitude of today's challenges leads to the conclusion that innovation is the only promising path forward. © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.