Data sovereignty in agriculture – Empowering farmers to control their own data

A new study on the digitalisation of agriculture puts farmers back at the centre of their own sector, identifies market gaps and gives recommendations on how to support relevant actors.

Digitalization has the potential to make agriculture more resilient, social and efficient. However, this requires the right framework conditions, such as access to education and sufficient infrastructure. Today, digitization also means that data from farmers is collected on a much larger scale, for example through the use of sensors and satellite data.

Farmers, especially in the Global South, usually have little influence and control over this data, which concerns their fields or their production methods. As a result, they are not able to benefit equally from the value of their data and are also not sufficiently involved in the development of new digital products. Therefore, “Digitalization has the potential to make agriculture more resilient, social and efficient. However, this requires the right framework conditions, such as access to education and sufficient infrastructure. Today, digitization also means that data from farmers is collected on a much larger scale, for example through the use of sensors and satellite data. Farmers, especially in the Global South, usually have little influence and control over this data, which concerns their fields or their production methods. As a result, they are not able to benefit equally from the value of their data and are also not sufficiently involved in the development of new digital products.

Therefore, Dalberg Data Insights designed and conducted a study on behalf of the GIZ Fund for the Promotion of Innovation in the Agri-Food Sector (i4Ag), that establishes data sovereignty as an important concept in this discussion and, most importantly, highlights practical examples and business models on how we can improve smallholder farmers’ control over their data.