Editorial: Agricultural innovation in the age of climate change: a 4.0 approach

The global agricultural landscape is constantly evolving, with a focus on identifying solutions to feed an increasingly large population, projected to reach 10 billion people by 2050 (UN, Department of Economic, 2024). This challenge arises at a time of increasing risks posed by the current rate of climate change (Kikstra et al., 2022), leading to an increased frequency of extreme weather events, shifting precipitation patterns, and new pest pressures due to ecosystem changes and adaptations. In this scenario, Agriculture 4.0 has emerged as a critical adaptation path toward developing resilient, efficient, and sustainable farming practices, characterized by the harmonization of modern technologies such as artificial intelligence (Cardellicchio et al., 2025), collaborative robotics (Reina et al., 2016), big data, and distributed smart sensors (Akhter and Sofi, 2022). This Research Topic, Agricultural Innovation in the Age of Climate Change: A 4.0 Approach, combines five different research areas to showcase the breadth and depth of such innovation.