The Digital Agriculture Revolution: What to Consider to Make it Work for Small or Marginalized Farmers?

Abstract

The latest agricultural revolution relies on digital technologies and promises to increase efficiency, profitability, and sustainability along the food value chain. The expectation is that farmers, cooperatives, extensionists, manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, and consumers can all benefit from the broad spectrum of digital technologies on offer. This sector is not monolithic and comprises different layers of technological complexity, including artificial intelligence, cloud platforms, big data, blockchain solutions, sensors, robots, drones, and mobile applications. Although there is a great deal to discover about these technologies, interest in promoting them is growing, and investments are skyrocketing.

Despite the bright promises of digital agriculture, scholars, practitioners, and civil society must examine the assumption that digital technologies are inherently better and more useful for small-scale farmers. First, technology is never neutral; there are specific interests and intentions at all stages of the development process, including how it is developed, by whom, who will use it, and how it may be used. Digital technology’s means and ends are value-laden (Bronson, 2022). Second, digital agriculture technologies are being introduced into a food system that is highly concentrated, centralized, and globalized (Hendrickson, Howard, and Constance, 2019). Because the current food system provides an uneven playing field for small farmers, who may have less power and agency than other actors, there is a concern that inserting new technologies into unequal societal relationships could disenfranchise vulnerable people while strengthening those in positions of power (Mooney, 2018). Identifying and understanding the social aspects tied to these technologies is the first step to ensure that technologies will successfully serve small and limited-resource farmers.

Drawing from the literature on socio-ethical implications for digital technologies in agriculture, this short paper identifies three key factors for agricultural practitioners and technology promoters to consider in introducing new agriculture technologies: inclusion/exclusion dynamics, data governance, and power distribution along the value chain. Analyzing these aspects of digital technology could help ensure that these innovations support, rather than marginalize, small and limited-resource farmers in the U.S. and abroad.