Towards a New Data Economy for EU Agriculture

Abstract

This paper discusses the transformation from analogue to digital agriculture (smart farming) and the laws and regulations affecting the governance of agricultural data in the EU. It is argued that the current legal and policy framework in the EU is insuffi cient to serve the needs of responsible smart farming systems. Specifi c characteristics of farm data and patterns in farm data collection and use contribute to market failures in agricultural data markets and hence to the insuffi cient provision of public goods through agriculture. The key parts of the smart farming data value chain are shaped by private contractual agreements between farmers and agricultural technology providers that do not take into account the potential negative externalities of established data fl ows. There is a strong rationale for a new data economy for EU agriculture, implying a greater involvement of the state in the smart farming data value chain. Interventions would be needed both to support the ecosystem for datadriven innovations in farming and to minimize the risk of new economic and social inequalities in the agriculture sector. The creation of an EU-wide farm data repository under the auspices of EU institutions and integrating public agricultural data with private farmers' data subject to anonymisation and aggregation can be seen as a fi rst step towards a new data economy for EU agriculture. Also, the Common Agricultural Policy should be more involved in and committed to the process of the digital transformation of farming in the EU.

EU Agricultural Digitalization Decalogue

“…Within the framework of the second approach one can identify the works studying the evolution of the CAP EEC/EU [23][24][25] starting in 1965 and up to the stage of digitalization (smart farming) as a policy for managing the data on prices, volumes and conditions of agricultural production. The experts substantiated the opportunity to direct wireless technologies, Internet of things, artificial intelligence and blockchain to the service of such EU priorities as environmental protection, innovation and inclusiveness.…”

The contribution of research to agricultural policy in Europe

“…In addition to the traditional public sector actors involved in collecting and aggregating agricultural data, the digital revolution engages additional actors such as agricultural equipment manufacturers, software developers and other private actors. Managing rights to agricultural data and privacy concerns relating to the use of both personal and nonpersonal data is emerging as a key regulatory challenge (Kosier 2019). The voluntary Code of Conduct for agricultural data sharing launched by a coalition of associations from the EU agri-food chain in 2018 represents an important first step in building the necessary trust and transparency (van der Burg, Wiseman, and Krkeljas 2020).…”

The farm to fork strategy and the digital transformation of the agrifood sector—An assessment from the perspective of innovation systems

“…Reasons include missing infrastructure in rural areas, but also a lack of trust. Even where data is available, a lack of interoperability standards, driven by monopolistic behavior, is complicating its use by other actors (Kosior, 2019b; Rotz et al, 2019; Zeb et al, 2021). Technological complexity also poses unresolved challenges (Weltzien, 2016).…”