Both of us—John Stafford and James Lowenberg-DeBoer—are retiring as editors-in-Chief at the end of 2022. John has been in post for the whole life of the Journal (22 years) and James since 2016. The Journal has seen many changes since its inception by Pierre Robert of Minnesota State University (Pierre and John were the first editors). Volume 1 issue 1 had just 8 papers in 108 pages; the numbers for the last issue were 18 and 400! The impact factor has steadily climbed from 1.3 in 2008 to 5.8 last year. Precision agriculture has developed considerably over the last 22 years in the disciplines it encompasses and the innovative technology that it has embraced—not least in the extensive takeup of sensors and analysis methods for the ‘big’ data thus produced.

At all times, we have sought to maintain and increase the quality of papers published in the Journal. Hence, the acceptance rate of submitted papers is only about one in five. For that, we make no apology but we do want to give heartfelt thanks to all those many authors who have submitted papers over the years—and even more thanks to all those who have reviewed papers for us. Good reviews require much effort and time, something we sincerely recognise.

We have been faithfully supported by our Editorial Board, many of whom act as associate editors for some papers each year. For their support, we are truly grateful.

We are pleased to inform readers that Dr Davide Cammarano of Aarhus University, Denmark will take over as Editor-in-Chief from January 2023. We wish him well for the continuing quality of the Journal—and an increasing Impact Factor!

Farewell, au revoir, auf wiedersehen, so long….