At the present stage of the formation of the theoretical and methodological basis of the digital economy, insufficient attention is paid to the issues of digitization of certain branches of national economy, including agriculture. The effectiveness of introducing digital technologies largely depends on the level of technological and information development of industries and fields of activity. Digital technologies themselves do not generate economic effect, they only allow to enhance it. And if the industry or field of activity has a low level of technical and technological development, their digital transformation will require, first of all, solving the problem of eliminating their technological backwardness. It should be accepted that a full-scale transition to the digital economy cannot be made in the near and even medium term. We need realistic understanding of the modern level of informatization of various aspects of public life, the quality of the existing scientific and technical groundwork, and practical significance of certain digital technologies for the social development. The principles of the formation of digital agriculture are demonstrated as components of the methodology. The range of basic information management tasks is substantiated without solving which the transfer of agriculture to digital technologies is impossible.