During the 2026 season, EMILI hosted a number of field days and other tours to provide diverse groups including producers, industry, investors, and innovators with opportunities to explore how new technologies are shaping the future of agriculture. During these events, EMILI asked attendees to participate in an interactive activity to better understand perceptions toward agtech adoption.
Using colourful stickers to differentiate their role in the sector, respondents answered three critical questions about adopting agriculture technology. In addition to using stickers to indicate the answer participants most agree with, EMILI encouraged people to write their thoughts on post-its, sharing unique insights. These responses explore the different perspectives across the industry.
The three questions EMILI asked participants to answer are:
- What gets in the way of adopting agtech?
- What do you believe producers want to see before adopting new agtech on their farm?
- Where does agtech add the most value?
What gets in the way of adopting agtech?
The majority of respondents said that the cost of adoption and continued use was the largest obstacle to adopting technologies on farms. This category received 41.5% of the votes.
The second largest response at 32.5% reflected uncertainty about on-farm ROI. 15% flagged lack of support and training as the biggest reason for farmers to be hesitant about adoption. In last place, there is a tie between uncertainty around data ownership and infrastructure issues, each with 5.5%.
This question polled 10 production advisors, 10 farm operations workers, 28 students, 45 agribusiness workers, and 18 scientists and researchers. EMILI’s Innovation Farm team analyzed the responses and broke them down into easy to understand graphs.
What do producers want to see before adopting agtech?
When considering what producers would like to see before adopting new technologies, half our respondents wanted proven ROI from other producers on real farms. According to our stickerboard data, this is one of the largest concerns in regards to advancing agtech adoption across canada
Of the other surveyed members, 30% believed farmers look for better integration with existing tools, 8% wanted peer recommendations, 7% voted for easier setup and use, and the last 5% wanted stronger support and training.
Where does agtech add the most value?
EMILI’s interactive stickerboard asked for perspectives on where agtech adds the most value in the agriculture sector.
EMILI broke responses into five main categories; efficiency and productivity, data collection, profitability, sustainability, and advancing the ag industry. From this list, 54.2% of stickerboard participants said efficiency and productivity are the most valuable assets of agtech adoption.
If you would like to contribute to the discussion, you can share your ideas here. This activity was inspired by a 2025 survey at Agriculture Enlightened, Canada’s agtech conference.
These survey results provide insights into how EMILI’s agriculture network feels about specific topics, and we look forward to collecting and sharing more results during our 2027 season.