Digital Agriculture and Sustainable Rural Transformation: A Critical Narrative Review of Mobile Agro-Advisory Services, Agricultural Robotics and Livelihood Resilience

Abstract

Digital agriculture is increasingly presented as a route to more productive, resource-efficient and climate-resilient rural economies, yet technologies grouped under this label differ sharply in capital intensity, evidence maturity and distributional consequences. This critical narrative review examines three connected domains: mobile agro-advisory services, agricultural robotics and livelihood resilience. The review integrates evidence from agricultural economics, extension science, rural development, information systems, precision agriculture and field robotics, with particular attention to smallholder and resource-constrained settings while retaining broader robotics evidence where it illuminates transferable technical or institutional mechanisms. The literature indicates that mobile advisory interventions can reduce information frictions and improve knowledge, recall and adoption, but effects on yield and income are heterogeneous and depend on relevance, trust, timing, connectivity, complementary inputs and human support. Agricultural robotics can improve task precision and reduce exposure to repetitive or hazardous work, but field robustness, capital cost, service infrastructure, interoperability and uneven farm-scale economics continue to constrain inclusive deployment. These two technology families therefore occupy different positions in rural transformation: advisory services mainly augment decisions and coordination, whereas robots automate physical operations and can reorganise labour, asset ownership and production systems. Livelihood resilience is strengthened only when digitalisation expands farmers' capabilities to anticipate, absorb, adapt and transform without creating new dependencies on inaccessible platforms, proprietary data systems or unaffordable machinery. The strongest interpretation of the combined evidence is consequently institutional rather than technological: sustainability gains are contingent on inclusive delivery models, trusted extension interfaces, viable financing, data rights, labour-transition strategies and outcome evaluation that extends beyond adoption. Future research should prioritise long-duration, distribution-sensitive studies that connect farm-level technical performance with household welfare, environmental effects and rural labour dynamics. Digital agriculture can support sustainable rural transformation, but the pathway is conditional, socially mediated and unlikely to be achieved through technology diffusion alone.