The digital transformation of agriculture is hampered by insufficient access to and fragmented control over agricultural data. New sector-specific rights and regulation for agricultural data would give better market efficiency and innovation a better chance, argues doctoral student Can Atik. He will receive his PhD from Tilburg University on July 11, 2023.
A paradigm shift is taking place in agriculture from traditional decision-making to data-driven "smart farming. Based on digital data collection and analysis on their farms, farmers can detect problems early, track developments and take action. Data-driven farming promises higher productivity, less resource use and minimal environmental impact.
However, digital transformation is accompanied by issues around access to and control over data, which hinders trust between stakeholders, healthy market functioning and innovation and. Legal scholar Can Atik examined what these problems are and how both current European legislation and new regulatory initiatives can change them.
Atik's research shows that lack of legal clarity on the terms of access to agricultural data makes it difficult for farmers to access and transfer their data because the data is technically controlled by technology providers and machine builders. This damages farmers' confidence in the sector's digital transformation. Other parties who want access to the data in the "farm-to-table" chain are also denied a chance. Start-ups, for example, cannot train algorithms and compete.
Both existing European regulatory frameworks around the protection of (personal) data, as well as a voluntary code of conduct set up for agriculture, are not sufficient to eliminate these problems, according to Atik, although the recent proposal for a new Data Act does make a difference.
Interests in the agricultural sector and researchers advocate for a "data ownership right" specifically for farmers, but these are likely to produce more harm than benefit, according to Atik. He suggests linking data access rights to farm units rather than to individual farmers or farms, so that actual farm operators can always access and share their agri-data sets.
In addition, a new technical hub for data access in agriculture combined with data quality standards and a data authority could improve access to data. Traditional enforcement of European competition law can play a complementary role, provided it is made suitable for the big data era.
