Transforming the primary sector with XR: A review of applications in agriculture, livestock, and learning environments

Abstract

The agricultural sector faces pressing challenges such as climate change, freshwater scarcity, overpopulation, energy demands, and workforce aging issues further exacerbated by global disruptions like the COVID-19 pandemic. As a response, emerging technologies such as Extended Reality (XR) which encompasses Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR) are gaining traction as tools to enhance productivity, sustainability, and education in agriculture and its allied fields. This review aims to explore and synthesize the current applications of XR technologies across agriculture, livestock farming, aquaculture, and agricultural education. By analyzing existing literature, this study categorizes XR use by application areas, device types (e.g., head-mounted displays, gesture recognition tools), and modes of human-machine interaction. In agricultural education, AR/VR technologies have shown significant potential to enrich learning environments, enhance conceptual understanding, and improve student engagement. Despite promising developments, the integration of XR in the primary sector remains at an early stage, with challenges including technical limitations, privacy, health concerns, and accessibility. The paper concludes by identifying current gaps and proposing future research directions to foster more immersive, secure, and effective XR adoption in the agricultural domain.