Data analytics in organic farming: Impact on environmental sustainability

The production of healthy food while preserving the environment constitutes one of the main challenges of the 21st century. Along these lines, organic farming has emerged as a farm management and food production system that encourages environmental sustainability. To enhance such sustainability, data analytics both as an asset and as a capability could play a substantial role. Indeed, data analytics could be used to interpret the past and predict the future and to make more timely or accurate decisions regarding the use and protection of natural resources. Using survey data from 119 Spanish organic farms whose digitization degree as reported by the farmer is above 0, and structural equation modeling based on partial least squares to test research hypotheses, we found that even though data analytics in organic farming is clearly underdeveloped, it still contributes to enhancing farms’ environmental sustainability. Thus, investments in environmental data analytics appear to pay off.