How are farmers keeping track of their data? Is that data secure and independent? Are they blocked and hostage of a certain provider?
I believe that the next revolution in farming is going to be based on a distributed network of local, sustainable and responsible food hubs. But to get to this reality there are several steps that need to happen.
Farming needs to become a Data First business.
Intuition is required for any business endeavor, but at the same time, we need to include more data in the farming practices. This data helps to show patterns, opportunities and risks of any farming endeavor. Unfortunately many small/medium farmers may find difficult to track and understand all the data they collect (if any)
Farming needs more IT independence.
Information Technologies so far, allow the farmer to put all their data but they hardly can take it from one provider to another. As they want to take care of their own tools, farmers need to start considering data as one of the more useful for the benefit of the farm in the long term. IT can help with better analytics and insights, better planning and better decision making.
Farming needs tools for networking.
Is not a secret that our food systems are not quite developed in a sustainable way. One of the key missing parts to accomplish that is the right infrastructure to deal with the interchange of information between farms, food hubs, food processors, hospitality industry and consumers. We need systems that integrate them together in a distributed way, no toils or bottlenecks, no fees for interaction. We need a network that is run on an infrastructure that enables farmers and the food system to evolve.
What do you think?