Day 1: Major challenges from a policy legal and ethical perspective, preventing smallholder farmers benefiting from data sharing
Which major gaps and challenges would you identify in the current scenario from a policy, legal and ethical perspective, which prevent smallholder farmers and communities from benefiting from data-driven agriculture?
1a: Challenges related to accessing data
1b: Challenges related to sharing data
Please focus on the policy, legal and ethical challenges. State the major challenges in a concise and general way, but if possible provide specific examples and say which actors are involved (who benefits, who doesn’t, which actors are perceived as not fulfilling their role).
Focus on the challenges at this stage, not the possible solutions.
Quelles sont les principales lacunes et difficultés identifiées dans le scénario actuel d'un point de vue politique, juridique et éthique, qui empêchent les petits agriculteurs et les communautés de tirer parti de l'agriculture axée sur les données?
1a: Défis liés à l'accès aux données
1b: Défis liés au partage de données
Veuillez-vous concentrer sur les défis politiques, juridiques et éthiques. Énoncez les principaux défis de manière concise et générale, mais si possible, donnez des exemples précis et indiquez quels acteurs sont impliqués (qui en bénéficie, qui ne le fait pas, quels acteurs sont perçus comme ne remplissant pas leur rôle).
Focus sur les défis à ce stade, pas les solutions possibles.
Cuáles son los mayores vacíos y retos que Usted identifica en el escenario actual desde una perspectiva política, legal y ética, que impiden a pequeños agricultores y comunidades beneficiarse de la agricultura basada en datos?
1a: Retos relacionados con el acceso a los datos
1b: Retos relacionados con compartir los datos
Por favor enfóquese en los retos políticos, legales y éticos. Mencione los mayores retos de manera concisa, y de ser posible, de ejemplos específicos y mencione qué actores están involucrados (quiénes se benefician, quiénes no y qué actores se consideran que no cumplen del todo con su rol)Concéntrese en los retos y no en dar posibles soluciones.
I agree with Hugo that the word "open" in the title of the e-discussion may be misleading.
Indeed the first paper Hugo mentions was not just about open data, but rather data sharing, and how open it can or should be in order not to harm the farmer.
The reason for the e-consultation title is that we started from the GODAN principle that open data is good and the discussion was on why, even if we agree it's a good thing, it is not benefiting smallholder farmers and how laws and policies could improve the situation. But indeed if we start discussing laws and policies it means we're considering that in certain cases data may better be not fully open.
So I would agree to change "aspects of open data" into "aspects of data sharing" in the title of the e-consultation and "benefiting from open data" into "benefiting from data sharing" in this day 1 question.
I'll do it and if someone disegrees I'm ready to revert the decision :-)
And my answer to Hugo's question would definitely be yes, the type of data you mention in the second part of your comment are part of this discussion.
Certainly.
When I approach my bank for a loan, I have to provide my financial situation for the bank to assess its risks (which unfortunately did not happen in 2008 with Fanny Mae etc., when the risk was converted to "derivatives;-)). As long as the bank uses it to give or not give me a loan, it is fine but if it gives this data to my grocer or milkman, then is it ethical or lawful? This is what the forum should debate because what you mention in Kenya is very similar.
The grocer or milkman you probably have enough money to pay directly, you are not asking them to extend credit to you for a bottle of milk or a few bananas. And yes, banks can also be bad at judging risk, but at least if banks have data on smallholders, they have something to assess, and are more likely to consider extending credit to them than if they have no data at all.
Dear Hugo, I think the mentioned article raises an important issue, and yes I think that we need to broaden the scope beyond open data while discussing these issues because it is not always clear on what part of the data spectrum (open-closed and everything in between) organisations will be able to operate.
Smallholder farmers are not given the platform on the policy dailogue and thier voices are not heard. when polices are developed the farmers are not consulted and the policies developed are not in favour of the farmers. In addition farmers do not have access to data especially the agricultural data. So information is power and smallholder faremers are found wanting when it scomes to data in agricultture.
Yes Sipiwe you're right. Farmers are enntirely left out during policy formulation and results in non-useful laws enacted.
Yes, I agree that farmers are not included as much as desired in policy making.
We must however consider that the use of any technology goes through phases of innovation, diffusion and then its widespread adoption in the mainstream.
Government policy may be viewed as a set of deliberate principles to guide decision making influences all phases of technology use. Policy can help or hinder technology use.
National policies are framed considering a backdrop of various political, economic, social and technological factors. In many cases now, the physical environment is also an important factor. As Agri-food systems span several countries and continents, International considerations also influence policy making. Policies are formally expressed through instruments such as standards, taxation, subsidies, rules, regulations and permissions. At the International level, these instruments also include arrangements, agreements and treaties.
Beyond these, societies and communities also express their ethical values informally around issues through norms and understandings.The more effective use of data, information and knowledge brought with information and communications technologies in farming, agriculture and agri-food systems is now at a stage where national policies can either accelerate or retard the pace of the technologies’ use. In turn, this can affect the livelihoods, incomes, health, nutrition and quality of life of a country’s citizens. More directly, it can affect its farmers. Thus, policy making must include representatives of all actors and stakeholders to an issue.
Farmers, especially smallholder farmers in developing countries, are politically, economically and many a times even socially weaker section of society. Calls for including them in policy making may not fructify until they are made politically strong and claim their right. This can only be possible when they are aggregated around a common cause.
1 a Challenges related to accessing data
Small farmers' data on their own production base (land data and production system) are captured by a number of organisations such as factories receiving their produce, insurance companies which charge premiums, research and other institutions who collect, process and store these information in their individual databases,. Some of these stakeholders may even exchange these data for given purposes. Farmers on the other hand have difficulty in acessing their own data from a centralised database which is inexistent for the time being. For e.g. if they need to benefit from certain government schemes, they must produce evidence from these same sources and it is a real hassle.
1 b Challenges relating to sharing data
Even if there is a general legal provision through the Data Protection Act (2017), small farmers hardly are aware of their rights. They are often rebuked by officials who invoke confidentiality clauses. Yet there exists lots of data lying in different databases which are not shared for e.g. there is no framework for sharing crop insurance data (detailed production and location of farmers land) with extension and research departments for the benefit of small lfarmers.
Structures could be created within the blockchain to allow farmers to submit data, even via SMS, that would then be pooled and stored on the blockchain, and made shareable to all who contributed (or could be open to all in general) giving small farmers a tool to pool their data and see the big picture that they often do not have access to.
In uganda the Data bill is still in parliament for discussion where it has been held for some long time. We have no straight polices concerning open data. Data collectors and stewards in this respect government ministries, institutions and so on have not done enough to inform the public on the availability of useful data for smallholder farmers. Youths in Technology and Development in collaboration with Bosch carried out a survey on the needs of smallholders farmers in uganda recently and we wanted to know if farmers really get data from government. supprisingly all respondents were ignorant of the idea of data even the most educated among the farmers. To me the first challenge related to accessiing data is lack of publicity about the availabilty of agricultural data.