Taking the agricultural digitalization path: identifying and assessing the future competency needs of adopters in Greece

Purpose Agricultural digitalization is a lengthy, uncertain, and skill-demanding process. In the present work, we aimed to identify and assess the future competencies that farmers should possess to navigate on-farm digitalization successfully.Design/Methodology/Approach To meet our purpose, we conducted a study in Greece. In its qualitative strand, using data from two expert workshops, we arrived at a list of candidate competencies corresponding to multiple agri-digital futures. The quantitative strand of our study classified and hierarchized these competencies.Findings The analysis showed that the most critical future competencies are farmers’ capacity to navigate identity transitions as they go digital, their ability to combine technologies, and their capability to learn by interacting with digital tools. Competencies in assessing/selecting and exploiting technologies, and adopters’ capacity to protect their data were found to follow in order of importance.Practical Implications Our findings can inform plans to upskill adopters of digital agricultural technologies.Theoretical Implications The multiple agri-digital futures lens adopted in this work can serve as a theoretical basis for studies examining how digitalization will likely change farming.Originality/Value The present study provided a hierarchy of farmers’ future digitalization-related competencies, and uncovered competency needs that are less discussed in the literature.