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Procedia Computer Science 217 (2023) 1755–1764

4th
4th International
International Conference
Conference on
on Industry
Industry 4.0
4.0 and
and Smart
Smart Manufacturing
Manufacturing
Industry 4.0 in the agrifood supply chain: a review
Barbara
Barbara Bigliardi
Bigliardia, *,
a,
*, Eleonora
Eleonora Bottani
Bottania,, Giorgia
a
Giorgia Casella
Casellaa,, Serena
a
Serena Filippelli
Filippellib,, Alberto
b
Alberto
Petroniaa
, Benedetta Piniaa
, Emilio Gianatti
Petroni , Benedetta Pini , Emilio Gianatti
aa

a Department of Engineering and Architecture, University of Parma, Parma 43124, Italy

a
Department of Engineering and Architecture, University of Parma, Parma 43124, Italy
b
b Department
Department of
of Economics,
Economics, Science,
Science, and
and Law,
Law, University
University of
of San
San Marino,
Marino, Dogana
Dogana 47899,
47899, San
San Marino
Marino

Abstract
Abstract

The
The term
term Industry
Industry 4.0
4.0 was
was introduced
introduced at at the
the Hannover
Hannover (Germany)
(Germany) tradetrade fair
fair for
for the
the first
first time
time in in 2011.
2011. Since
Since then,
then, several
several
initiatives were
initiatives were proposed
proposed in in different
different countries,
countries, andand its
its benefits
benefits are
are generally
generally recognized
recognized by by researchers
researchers andand practitioners.
practitioners. The
The
Industry
Industry 4.0
4.0 paradigm
paradigm is is more
more and
and more
more adopted
adopted by by companies
companies belonging
belonging to to different
different industries,
industries, among
among which
which the
the agrifood
agrifood one.
one.
This
This industry
industry has
has already
already been
been grappling
grappling withwith aa range
range ofof new
new technologies
technologies forfor aa few
few years
years now,
now, some
some already
already implemented
implemented by by aa
few
few players
players inin the
the supply
supply chain,
chain, others
others that
that are
are in
in the
the process
process of
of being
being developed.
developed. The
The latest
latest historical
historical events
events such
such as
as COVID-19
COVID-19
and
and trends
trends such
such as
as sustainability,
sustainability, areare all
all spurring
spurring thethe search
search for
for innovative
innovative solutions
solutions toto respond
respond to to current
current problems
problems andand future
future
challenges.
challenges. TheThe objective
objective ofof this
this paper
paper isis to
to explore
explore the
the various
various applications
applications ofof 4.0
4.0 technologies
technologies in in the
the agrifood
agrifood sector
sector with
with the
the
aim
aim ofof understanding
understanding whatwhat areare the
the new
new trends
trends and
and changes
changes inin the
the sector.
sector. To
To reach
reach this
this objective,
objective, we we carried
carried out
out aa systematic
systematic
literature review
literature review ofof the
the extant
extant literature,
literature, toto derive
derive an
an overview
overview of of the
the issues
issues in
in the
the industry.
industry. The
The review
review allowed
allowed usus to
to identify
identify the
the
trends
trends and
and technologies
technologies thatthat respond
respond to to the
the challenges
challenges the
the industry
industry is
is facing.
facing.
© 2022
© 2022 The
The Authors.
Authors. Published
Published by
by Elsevier B.V.B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
© 2022
This The
is an Authors.
open accessPublished by ELSEVIER
article under ELSEVIER B.V. This
the CC BY-NC-ND is an open
license access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
Peer-reviewunder
Peer-review underresponsibility
responsibilityofof
thethe scientific
scientific committee
committee of 4th
of the
the the International
4th International Conference
Conference on Industry
on Industry
Industry and4.0
4.0 and and Smart
Smart
Peer-review
Manufacturing under responsibility of the scientific committee of 4th International Conference on 4.0 Smart
Manufacturing
Manufacturing
Keywords: Blockchain;
Keywords: Blockchain; literature
literature review;
review; case
case study;
study; supply
supply chain.
chain.

1.
1. Introduction
Introduction

Industry
Industry 4.0
4.0 (I4.0)
(I4.0) has
has already
already been
been part
part of
of the
the global
global industrial
industrial system
system in
in many
many sectors
sectors for
for aa few
few years
years [1].
[1]. One
One
among
among them is manufacturing, which is at the forefront in many respects [2]. Given the enormous benefits that
them is manufacturing, which is at the forefront in many respects [2]. Given the enormous benefits that the
the
4.0
4.0 transition
transition enables,
enables, also
also other
other sectors
sectors are
are following
following the
the same
same path,
path, such
such as
as the
the agrifood
agrifood one.
one. This
This industry
industry has
has

*
* Corresponding
Corresponding author.
author. Tel.:
Tel.: +39
+39 0521
0521 905860
905860
E-mail address: Barbara.bigliardi@unipr.it
E-mail address: Barbara.bigliardi@unipr.it

1877-0509
1877-0509 ©© 2022
2022 The
The Authors.
Authors. Published
Published byby ELSEVIER
ELSEVIER B.V.
B.V. This
This is
is an
an open
open access
access article
article under
under the
the CC
CC BY-NC-ND
BY-NC-ND license
license
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
Peer-review under
Peer-review under responsibility
responsibility of
of the
the scientific
scientific committee
committee of
of the
the 4th
4th International
International Conference
Conference on
on Industry
Industry 4.0
4.0 and
and Smart
Smart Manufacturing
Manufacturing
1877-0509 © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 4th International Conference on Industry 4.0 and Smart
Manufacturing
10.1016/j.procs.2022.12.375
1756 Barbara Bigliardi et al. / Procedia Computer Science 217 (2023) 1755–1764
2 B. Bigliardi et al. / Procedia Computer Science 00 (2022) 000–000

already been grappling with a range of new technologies for a few years now, some already implemented by a few
players in the supply chain, others that are in the process of being developed [4]. The latest historical events such as
COVID-19 and trends such as sustainability, are all spurring the search for innovative solutions to respond to current
problems and future challenges.
Given the great attention paid to I4.0 thanks to the positive results obtained by companies adopting it, the interest
towards this topic is continuously growing. Notwithstanding, there is still a lot to be done to get to the complete
digitization, automation, and interconnection of business processes. In addition, the application fields of enabling
technologies are yet to be fully explored, as well as their potentials. Thus, the main objective of this paper is to
explore the various applications of 4.0 technologies in the agrifood sector with the aim of understanding what are the
new trends and changes in the sector. To reach this objective, we carried out a systematic literature review of the
extant literature, to derive an overview of the main issues in the industry. To date, several literature reviews,
summarized in Table 1, investigated the adoption of Industry 4.0 within the agrofood supply chain, nevertheless each
of them focused on a particular aspect or a specific digital technology applied, failing to provide an overall picture of
the Industry 4.0 phenomenon in the agrofood industry.

Table 1. Most recent literature reviews.

Title Year Scope Methodology Findings Reference

Industry 4.0 technologies

in agri-food supply chains: Application of I
Systematic
Key performance 2022 4.0 technologies Identification of 10 KPIs [4]
literature review
indicators in agrifood SCs

From Industry 4.0 to

Application of Identification of key
Agriculture 4.0: Current
I4.0 applications of I 4.0
Status, Enabling 2021 Literature review [5]
technologies in technologies in
Technologies, and
agriculture agriculture
Research Challenges

Study and analysis of the

Bibliometric
implementation of 4.0 Application of I Identification of most
analysis and
technologies in the agri- 2021 4.0 technologies relevant indicators for [6]
systematic
food supply chain: A state in agrifood SCs I4.0 implementation
literature review
of the art

Agri-food 4.0: A survey of Investigation of the use of

Application of
the Supply Chains and Internet of Things, Big
I4.0
Technologies for the 2020 Literature review Data, Blockchain and [7]
technologies in
Future Agriculture Artificial Intelligence in
agriculture
agriculture
Blockchain
technology in agri-food
value chain management: Systematic Identification of main
Blockchain in
A synthesis of 2019 literature application of Blockchain [8]
agrifood SCs
applications, challenges network analysis in agrifood SCs
and future research
directions

As can be derived from Table 1, only the most recent reviews on the subject ([4][6]) cover the whole agrifood supply
chain, but their final aim is to identify useful KPIs rather than to discuss the main topics investigated. Moreover,
other scholars based their reviews on a specific digital technology, such as Blockchain ([7][8]), Big Data, Artificial
 Barbara Bigliardi et al. / Procedia Computer Science 217 (2023) 1755–1764 1757
B. Bigliardi et al. / Procedia Computer Science 00 (2022) 000–000 3

Intelligence and Internet of Things ([7]), investigate throughout the whole supply chain ([8]) or at a specific stage,
such as agriculture ([5][7]). Differently from previous ones, our review allowed us to identify the trends and
technologies that respond to the challenges the industry is facing.
The paper is structured as follows. The next section introduces the topic of Industry 4.0, in general and applied in
the agribusiness sector. General information about the agribusiness 4.0 in Italy are also presented in the same
section. The choice of focusing on the Italian country, presenting an overview of the main trends within the sector,
lies in the fact that the agrifood is Italy’s biggest industry, thus providing valuable insights for our research.
Moreover, existing literature witnesses a high number of publications authored by Italian scholars, confirming the
relevance of the topic in the Italian setting. Then, the objective and the methodology adopted are described, followed
by the main results from the review. Finally, an overview of technologies and future challenges for the agribusiness
sector is proposed.

2. Industry 4.0 in the agrifood sector

One of the most discussed topics in the recent industrial literature, is Industry 4.0, a term that was introduced at
the Hannover (Germany) trade fair for the first time in 2011 [9]. Since then, several I4.0 initiatives were proposed in
different countries. For instance, in October 2012 a group of engineers presented the first real implementation plan
for Industry 4.0, the "Industrie 4.0" program, to the German federal government. In the same year, in the U.S. an
initiative called SMLC (Smart Manufacturing Leadership Coalition) brought together manufacturing companies,
research institutions, universities and organizations in research and development of shared standards, platforms and
infrastructure [10]. A similar initiative, the "High Value Manufacturing", was carried out in the U.K. [11]. Also
France and Italy implemented the I4.0 paradigm, following the German and American example, respectively with
the plan "Industrie du Futur" and with the "National Plan Industry 4.0”[12][13].
I4.0 represents the fourth stage of the industrial revolution. Specifically, it moves from the third industrial
revolution to the "smart" or Industry 4.0. Indeed, the 4.0 revolution is enabled by the use of enabling technologies.
The smart factory does not merely perform automated operations based on pre-set procedures. The term “smart”
refers to the ability of machines to actively acquire, analyze and interpret data. The smart factory follows totally new
logic and need for technologies that are (potentially) totally interconnected with each other. One of the more
interesting implications is the ability to measure, analyze, interpret, and store data in an increasingly efficient and
effective way and to be able to share them in real time with other internal business processes or with other external
actors operating in the supply chain.
I4.0 is based on several enabling technologies, that are classified in the Italian plan presentation document,
following a study by the Boston Consulting Group [14], as follows:
- Advanced Manufacturing Solutions: interconnected and rapidly programmable collaborative robots
- Simulation: simulation between interconnected machines to optimize processes
- Horizontal/ Vertical Integration Information integration along the value chain from supplier to consumer
- Augmented Reality: augmented reality to support manufacturing processes
- Additive Manufacturing: 3D printers connected to digital development software
- Industrial Internet: multidirectional communication between production processes and products
- Big Data and Analytics: analysis of a large database to optimize products and production processes
- Cloud: management of large amounts of data on open systems
- Cyber security: security during networked operations and on open systems
A few years later, the Industry 4.0 Observatory of the Milan Politecnico provided a new classification of these
technologies, by identifying two main classes: one closer to the information technologies (IT), consisting of Internet
of Things (IoT), Big Data and Cloud Computing, and the other, more heterogeneous and closer to the operational
level, consisting of Advanced automation, Advanced Human Machine Interface (HMI), and Additive Manufacturing
[15].
Also the agrifood industry is implementing the I4.0 paradigm. It is moved by different problems and challenges
the industry is facing, such as the climate change, limited market access, lack of storage and warehousing
arrangements, lower level of digitalization among farmers, high capital and installation cost of advanced
technologies and limited perceived benefits of technologies, insufficient water supply, inadequate transportation,
1758 Barbara Bigliardi et al. / Procedia Computer Science 217 (2023) 1755–1764
4 B. Bigliardi et al. / Procedia Computer Science 00 (2022) 000–000

lack of knowledge about farm business planning and agricultural marketing [16]. Similarly, [17] highlighted
ecological problems, lack of digitalization, food safety issues and asymmetric and fragmented information as the
main problems of the sector.
Because of this challenges, different example of I4.0 applications to the agrifood industry are available in the
literature. These applications are summarized in Table 2:

Table 2. Application of the main enabling technologies in the agrifood industry (source: adapted from [17]).
Technology Application
IoT Space-Air Ground Integrated Network;
Precision Farming; Livestock and Fishery
Monitoring; Smart Greenhouse
Robotics Plant factory, Biodiverse farming, acrial
spaying and monitoring; 3D food printing;
Autonomous farming; Automatic husbandry
AI and Big Data Agricultural robot; Agricultural Decision
Support System; Mobile agricultural expert
system; Agricultural predictive analytics
Blockchain Smart contract; Cybersecurity
Research challenges
Professional Agricultural Sensors; Wireless
Power Transfer and Ambient Energy
Harvesting; Cross-Media and Cross
Technology Communication; Robust
Wireless Networks
Autonomous navigation; Accurate detection;
Intelligent action
Hard to find single standard solution; Gap
between farmers and AI researchers;
Distributed secure Machine Learning;
Technical and social issues with Big Data
Interoperability; Energy consumption;
Scalability; Security and privacy

The importance of I4.0 for the agrifood industry is heighted by the fact that researchers and practitioners often
talk about Agrifood 4.0 to refer to the application of I4.0 to the sector. In the Italian context, the Agrifood 4.0 has
shown an increasing over the last years, as depicted in Figure 1 (data in million €):

2000
1500
1000
500
0
2017 2018 2019 2020 2021

Fig. 1. The Agrifood 4.0 in Italy (source: adapted from [15])

3. Objective and methodology

The sample of papers investigating the application of I4.0 in the agrifood industry has been extracted from two main
sources: the Scopus (www.scopus.com) database and Web of Science. The query used was: ( TITLE-ABS-KEY (
"Industry 4.0" ) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY ( "I4.0" ) AND TITLE-ABS-KEY ( "agrifood" ) ) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY
( "agrofood" ) ) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY ( "agri-food" ) ) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY ( "agro-food" ) ) AND ( LIMIT-
TO ( LANGUAGE , "English" ) ). We included all types of publications (i.e., papers on journal, conferences,
books, etc.) and did not set any limitation of time. Then a manual screening was carried put in order to exclude those
papers that dealt only marginally with the topic, as well as to exclude those papers that were not available. The
search resulted in 42 documents retained, whose data were extracted directly from Scopus in csv format and
imported in an Excel database for their analysis. The 42 papers were as first analyzed by a descriptive and
bibliometric point of view, and then read by all the authors to identify the key areas that are more investigated in the
literature. Figure 2 shows the process followed.
 Barbara Bigliardi et al. / Procedia Computer Science 217 (2023) 1755–1764 1759
B. Bigliardi et al. / Procedia Computer Science 00 (2022) 000–000 5

Fig. 2. Flow diagram of paper selection process used in the present study (following PRISMA guidelines).

4. Results and discussion

In this section the main results from the literature analysis are presented and discussed. Specifically, an overview
of the selected studies to highlight the distribution of the studies in time, the most prominent sources, countries, and
authors are presented as first. Microsoft Excel was used to perform these descriptive statistics. Then, we report and
discuss the results of the systematic review.

4.1. Descriptive statistics

The 45 papers included in the sample are mainly articles (17) and conference papers (13) (Figure 3). Figure 4
presents the distribution of research attention in each publication year. The growth rate of publications in recent
years suggests that the increasing interest on this topic should become even more relevant in the future.

Fig. 3. Document types.

61760 B.Barbara
BigliardiBigliardi et al. / Procedia
et al. / Procedia ComputerComputer Science
Science 00 (2022)217 (2023) 1755–1764
000–000

Fig. 4. The publication trend over the years.

As for the journals where the 42 papers have been published, 23 sources have been identified. Out of the total
published, only 5 journals published more than 2 papers, as shown in Figure 5. The remaining journals published
only one paper on the topic.

4
4 3
4 2
4

3
Advances In Intelligent Systems And Computing
2 Advanced Series In Management
Sustainability Switzerland
1 Computers In Industry
0 British Food Journal

Documents

Fig. 5. The most prominent sources (limited to journals that published at least five papers on the topic).

As for the subject area, 19 papers refer to the areas “Computer science” and “Engineering”, followed by the areas
“Business Management and Accounting” and “Agricultural and biological sciences” with 14 papers. Italy, probably
due to the importance of the agrifood industry in the national economy, is the country with the higher number of
publications (12). It is followed by Spain (8), India (4), France (3), Canada, China, Ireland, Portugal, and U.K. with
2 papers. Other countries published only 1 paper on the topic investigated (Figure 6). Specifically, the country is
derived from the affiliation of the papers’ first author, thus the distribution of papers by country contributes to shed
light also on the authors’ countries of origin. This information allows to identify where the most productive
organizations in terms of research activity on Industry 4.0 in the agrifood sector are located, offering a valuable
suggestion to researchers interested in spend a period of time in a foreign country to deepen their knowledge on the
topic.

Even if the first paper among those included in the sample was published in 2018, 15 papers received more than
10 citations on Scopus, and 4 with even more than 100 citations. Table 3 reports the most cited papers.
 B. Bigliardi et al. / Procedia Computer Science 00 (2022) 000–000 7
Barbara Bigliardi et al. / Procedia Computer Science 217 (2023) 1755–1764 1761

Fig. 6. Distribution of reviewed papers by country.

Table 3. The most-cited papers (more than 100).

Paper Authors Journal (year of publication) Citations on Scopus
Lezoche, M., Panetto, H., Kacprzyk, J., Hernandez,
[7] Computers in Industry (2020) 168
J.E., Alemany Díaz, M.M.E.
Zhao, G., Liu, S., Lopez, C., (...), Chen, H.,
[8] Computers in Industry (2019) 188
Boshkoska, B.M.
[18] Miranda, J., Ponce, P., Molina, A., Wright, P. Computers in Industry (2019) 104
Galanakis, C.M., Rizou, M., Aldawoud, T.M.S., Trends in Food Science and
[19] 103
Ucak, I., Rowan, N.J. Technology (2021)

Finally, each paper has been read by the authors and classified according to the sub-topics investigated. The
analysis led to the identification of three macro-areas of topics, summarized in Table 4:

Table 4. The four macro-areas identified.

Macro-area Description Papers included
Agribusiness technology Application of 4.0 technologies to the [16][17][19][20]0[21][22][23][24][25]
transition agrifood sector [26][27]
Supply chain 4.0 technologies concerning agribusiness [8][7][28]0[29][30][31][32][33][34]
management 4.0 supply chain management [35][36][37][38][39][40][41]0
Sustainability and other 4.0 technologies, models, and other [42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51]
trends trends affecting the agrifood industry [52][53][54]

Papers belonging to the area are focused on how I4.0 enabling technologies that have been adapted to the agrifood
sector. They highlight how these technologies have been used, for example, to solve problems related to natural
resource management, food waste, consumer behavior, and describe major barriers and challenges to
1762 Barbara Bigliardi et al. / Procedia Computer Science 217 (2023) 1755–1764
8 B. Bigliardi et al. / Procedia Computer Science 00 (2022) 000–000

implementation in the agrifood sector. For example, [17] illustrate the adoption of five emerging technologies: IoT,
robotics, artificial intelligence, Big Data analytics, and blockchain. The analysis of these technologies takes place on
key applications and future challenges in the agricultural sector, with the goal of helping and promoting the opening
of new research channels. [22] present the architecture of Agritech Business 4.0, a transparent model designed to
integrate agricultural production with the food distribution network through the adoption of I4.0 technologies, with
the aim to improve agricultural production, food security, transparency and decentralization using IoT, Smart DLT,
Big Data Analytics. Similarly, the work by [25] focus on the issue of the transition from traditional farming
techniques, to precision agriculture, facilitated by the implementation of 4.0 technologies. Studies included in the
second area focus on the agrifood supply chain management. They highlight how the continuous growth of adoption
of 4.0 technologies (such as IoT, Big Data, AI), lead to the emergence of new and more effective and efficient
solutions (e.g., [29], [30]). Several papers describe the adoption of blockchain in the agrifood supply chain ([8][30]).
[6] identify a series of key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the benefits derived from the adoption of such
technologies. Finally, the third area includes papers discussing the main issue the agrifood industry is facing, that is
sustainability. For example, [50] stress that sustainability must be considered according to the three pillars (i.e.,
social, environmental and economic). Moreover, it highlights some benefits that sustainability may lead to the
agrifood industry. The work by [46] proposes lean management as fundamental to improve the sustainable
performance of agrifood companies.

5. Conclusions

In the present research, a systematic literature review was performed to provide a comprehensive picture of the
current state-of-the-art about the adoption of I4.0 in the agrifood supply chain. To reach our objective, a search
query was made on the Scopus database and on Web of Science, leading to 42 papers published between 2018 and
2022. As first, the analysis describes some descriptive statistics on the whole sample of articles reviewed, such as
the types of documents, the temporal distribution of articles (that shows that there is an increasing interest about the
topic investigated), the outlets where the studies have been published and the main countries that investigated this
issue (i.e., Italy). Then, a systematic review of the 42 papers was carried out by reading all of them and classifying
them according to the common issue on which they focus. This analysis led to the identification of three macro-
areas (namely, agribusiness technology transition, supply chain management 4.0, and sustainability and other
trends). Moreover, it contributed to the existing body of knowledge highlighting the main challenges faced by the
agrifood industry that could be tackled thanks to the I 4.0 technologies adoption. The incorporation of I 4.0
elements, in fact, could help to increase productivity and offer consumers more customized products. In addition,
concerning the sustainability challenge, a deep focus on digital skills could favor the achievement of sustainable
development goals, among which we can find the urgency to solve the world hunger problem. Future studies should
further investigate the aforementioned areas of research, as well as deeper analyze the reasons why the agrofood
industry lags behind other industries in the adoption of digital technologies. This paper, however, also shows some
limitations. First, the search results were obtained by considering Scopus and Web of Science, while other databases
(such as GoogleScholar) were not included in the review. Thus, as a further research direction, it is suggested to use
additional various databases. Moreover, a more in-depth analysis should be carried out by adopting a qualitative
approach. For instance, multiple case studies of companies operating in the agrifood industry should be investigated
to gain insight from their application of I4.0 technologies.

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