Theme Mapping and Bibliometric Analysis of Two Decades of Smart Farming

Abstract

The estimated global population for 2050 is 9 billion, which implies an increase in food demand. Agriculture is the primary source of food production worldwide, and improving its efficiency and productivity through an integration with information and communication technology system, so-called “smart farming”, is a promising approach to optimizing food supply. This research employed bibliometric analysis techniques to investigate smart farming trends, identify their potential benefits, and analyze their research insight. Data were collected from 1141 publications in the Scopus database in the period 1997–2021 and were extracted using VOS Viewer, which quantified the connections between the articles using the co-citation unit, resulting in a mapping of 10 clusters, ranging from agriculture to soil moisture. Finally, the analysis further focuses on the three major themes of smart farming, namely the IoT; blockchain and agricultural robots; and smart agriculture, crops, and irrigation.