The future of farming: global patent trends in digital agriculture
By 2050, the world will need to produce roughly 70% more food than it did in 2009, on a planet with less spare land, less predictable weather, and less patience for the environmental cost of getting there. Consumer demand is shifting toward more sustainably and traceably produced food. Supply chains that looked resilient a decade ago have been tested repeatedly by pandemics, war and extreme weather, and political instability keeps rewriting the map of where food can reliably be grown, moved and sold.
Digital agriculture is one of the clearest technological responses to these pressures, and one of the fastest-growing areas of patent filing anywhere in the world. In 2025, the European Patent Office (EPO) published a technology insight report analysing exactly where that innovation is happening, who is driving it, and what it signals for anyone building or defending an IP position in the sector.
What is digital agriculture, and what is being protected?
The report structures the technology into four groups: crop agriculture (soil preparation, sowing, harvesting, post-harvest handling, forestry), artificial growing conditions (greenhouses, hydroponics and other controlled environments), livestock (herd management, automated milking) and supporting technologies such as precision irrigation, pest control and climate modification.
Common to all four are the same underlying technology areas:
- sensors and imaging that measure soil, plant and animal conditions in real time;
- AI and data analytics that turn that data into agronomic decisions;
- robotics and autonomous machinery that execute those decisions; and
- drones providing aerial monitoring at scale.
Two things stand out in the breakdown. First, filing volume doesn’t track filing growth. Animal husbandry is the single largest category, making up over 23% of all filings, but the fastest growing cluster is plant agriculture: soil working, seeding and fertilising, harvesting, spoilage reduction and forestry combined. This cluster has grown roughly sevenfold in patent families since 2000, its growth rate more than doubling from 6% between 2000 and 2012, to 13% between 2012 and 2022. It is now increasing the average to approximately 9.4%.
Second, within each area the report tracks which specific digital technology is driving the filings. Sensing and imaging hold by far the largest share, forming the foundational layer that nearly every other invention builds on, and rising from roughly 600 international patent families a year in 2013 to over 1,300 by 2022. Treatment and automation is a clear second and growing fast. Data and artificial intelligence filings are smaller in volume but accelerating sharply since around 2018, recently overtaking environmental aspect technologies in annual filings for the first time. This is a sign that the AI and drone claim space, while still small, is where the competitive landscape is least settled.
Who is filing, and where?
Historically, EPO member states have been the largest source of applicants, and Europe still hosts the deepest supporting ecosystem, with nearly 320 startups and universities active in digital agriculture in EPO member states. But the growth curve is shifting eastward: Asian applicants have posted the fastest growth, at over 13% annually, overtaking North America around 2020. Latin America, led by Brazil and Mexico, is close behind at nearly 11%.
European companies innovating in this space should consider extending protection into these regions. Securing domestic protection is important, but these international markets increasingly hold the commercial value, meaning patent protection there matters just as much.
Filing activity is also becoming increasingly corporate. Rather than individual or academics, companies accounted for 88% of patent families by 2022, up from a much lower share pre 2012, and their own filing rate doubled from 5% to 10% across that period. This is a clear sign that businesses see real commercial value in these innovations, and is a strong reason to build a diverse patent portfolio robust enough to withstand third party scrutiny.
The bigger picture
The EPO frames all this against a pressing need: feeding a global population expected to exceed ten billion by 2050, without a proportionate increase in cultivated land, while reducing water use, chemical inputs and emissions. That explains why patenting has accelerated so sharply since 2012, and why the pace shows no sign of slowing.
For businesses in digital agriculture, the message is straightforward. This is now a crowded, fast moving and increasingly global filing landscape, and a defensible IP position depends on getting both the drafting and the jurisdictional strategy right from the outset.
Related article: D Young & Co, “Precision farming: the patents behind Clarkson’s Farm”, 07 July 2026.
From Diddly Squat to data-driven farming, agritech innovation is reshaping how land is managed and protected.
Ben Hunter takes a look at the latest precision farming tools featured in Clarkson’s Farm, and highlights the importance of establishing a proactive, sophisticated European patent strategy early to help safeguard smart farming technology: https://dycip.com/precision-farming.
Useful link
EPO, “Digital agriculture Towards sustainable food security”, September 2025: https://dycip.com/epo-digital-agriculture
