Digitalisation of Agriculture
The commons-based platform called Farm Hack fascinated me. This worldwide community of farmers, contributing to their joint journey towards a more resilient agriculture. It is a socio-economic model that is booming in agriculture worldwide. Coming from India, it is intriguing to see the impact of digitalisation in rural areas. The use of data in commons-based data can be crucial in helping farmers to deal with floods, droughts and other adversities.
Commons.farm in India
Inspired by the commons-based platform Farm Hack, I’ll highlight an example from India here. The platform commons.farm is trying to make visible and connect the whole value chain in Indian agriculture: connecting farmers (thanks to increasing digitalization of rural India), with buyers and suppliers of inputs, while also providing (free of cost) farm advice to the farmers.
The platform is presented as a commons-based media resource. Information is accessible and the platform offers different ways of interlinking stakeholders, from farm to fork: producer to retailer, producer to farmer producer organisation and also producer to input providers (seeds, fertilisers, etc.). I do feel like, from an ethical point of view, ‘commons’ would also mean a symmetric relation between the parties that are involved in the platform. As the platform involves subsistence farmers and marginalised communities, awareness on the consequences of data sharing is not equal among all stakeholders. Digitalization in rural Indian communities brings tremendous opportunities to enhance rural livelihoods, while at the same time it brings about an ethical debate.
A commons based platform such as commons.farm uses farmers data to benefit them: they are better connected to markets and input providers (seeds, fertilisers and crop protection). Platforms like these function the same way as a doctor’s visit: the farmer provides data (the same way a patient is diagnosed) and consequently gets information on which inputs to buy (and from whom), which is like getting a prescription from a doctor. The difference is that the farmer pays with data. This data is being used to benefit companies that sell the products these farmers need. This concept is ultimately beneficial to farmers and input providers. However, there is a lack of awareness on what it means to share data in rural communities. Therefore, the rules of the ‘commons game’ are not equally clear to everyone involved. That challenge needs to be addressed before these platforms fulfil the premise of how Bollier and Helfrich deem commons based platforms a ‘bold and compelling alternative to the dead-end, predatory market-state system’.
The Takeaway
The course example of Farm Hack to me seems like an established commons based platform: farmers share expertise on more or less equal footing, the platform is by and for everyone involved. Different participants in the platform seem to benefit and contribute to a symmetric structure. I argue that this is different in the Indian context of Commons.farm, where the platform serves a noble purpose, but the relationship among stakeholders seems less equal. Commons based platforms are social economic entities that follow a pathway of mutualization in the economy (a transparent give and take).
I believe that in the rural Indian context commons platforms can still serve social economic purposes, but the starting points of different stakeholders are vastly different. In order to make commons platforms such as commons.farm even more purposeful one could work on awareness campaigns on data sharing and developing a social-economic model that identifies the ‘real cost of data’, in monetary terms but also from a social-ethical perspective. There seems to be a conflict here with the very basic idea of commons.based structures, a conflict of hierarchy and ownership in relation to the common good. Asymmetric power relationships can severely undermine the delivery of common goods. That’s why commons.platforms in an hierarchical society such as India, especially in rural India, need to ethically rethink the integration of rural India into the digital economy.