Trust me. Agriculture needs an escrow agent when it comes to data.

Digital transformation in agriculture continues to accelerate, as evidenced by precision ag businesses raising $380 million in funding for 2021’s third quarter. It is clear that industry leaders want to be able to get on with their jobs and they are looking to tech to streamline processes.

But the data opportunities in automation are frustratingly limited as (big) pockets of the supply chain still work in siloes. It is simply not as collaborative as it should be, which is hindering insights and limiting value across the industry.

And without a doubt, one of the biggest barriers to sharing this data is still trust.

It is an endemic problem in our industry as data is rightfully considered a stakeholder’s IP. This means the opportunities for data-led collaboration are limited by concerns that along with data sharing will come unintended consequences that give competitors an advantage.

MORE BY MATT WAITS

In concept, the solution is a no-brainer: agriculture needs an independent third-party that stewards data across the supply chain, not in favor of any party or industry sector. And it should be one that connects every stakeholder — farmer to grocer — to make acute forecasts, manage disruption and avoid human error across the food system.

Top Articles
Drones Giving Produce Growers a New Perspective on Crop Scouting

How This Works to the Benefit of All Players

Most in the industry understands the benefits of sharing data, but there is still a lot of trepidation due to fear that their data will somehow be used against them.

For example, growers working with seed companies know that sharing data will offer more accuracy in recommendations through matching field-specific traits to the best products, and rates. While they understand this, they are not convinced that the value of field-specific recommendations outweighs the risk of value-pricing that may come as a result of the manufacturer having direct access to their data.

Instead, they opt for blanket recommendations on a regional scale, even though the variations in field environments mean it won’t always be the most appropriate product or recommendation.

This caution is echoed elsewhere in the supply chain, too. Take ag retailers, who are concerned that data transparency will impede customer relationships if manufacturers use it to target farmers directly, which means they risk being cut out.

This is why agriculture needs an escrow agent. It would be one that facilitates value exchange between participants, while allowing end-users to control how their data is used. One example of this would be a solution that allows a grower to share data in return for a recommendation, but where the escrow agent obfuscates the grower’s identity and the exact location of the field. Another would be a solution that allows food companies to interact with the escrow agent to validate compliance with sustainability requirements, but in a way where the buyer doesn’t get direct access to the grower’s data.

Another significant challenge that I discussed in my piece is December, is that due to a lack of industry standards, systems integration is extremely difficult and therefore expensive. If an independent third party is to be successful it will have to translate data from many systems into a common data model, and by doing so can help the market achieve a level of integration that is desperately needed. Until we tackle this challenge, we will continue to suffer from the Tower of Babel problem.

How the Broker Would Maintain Trusted Status

Initial efforts should be on helping growers and their trusted advisors make better use of data for the purposes of running an economically sustainable farming operation. However, industry leaders are starting to look at the bigger picture too. They want to know how sharing data will tackle future challenges affecting the ecosystem, most notably climate change, and how they can use it to demonstrate their own green standards.

This comes as initiatives from brands like Land O’Lakes, which is using field data to conduct assessments and advise its farmers on how they can reduce their carbon outputs, come into play. And off the back of COP26, it’s likely other businesses will follow suit to ensure their farm-to-fork systems are more sustainable. This means sharing data as proof of eco-friendly commitments could soon be expected as standards from grocers and retailers.

An escrow agent should therefore position itself as one that can extract and provide this data, while remaining totally independent, to show its worth.

Agriculture is a competitive industry. It’s understandable why leaders and businesses are hesitant to share data if there’s a perception it can be used against them, or to someone else’s advantage. For stakeholders to trust an escrow agent, they’ll need to be able to demonstrate best-practice with data, proving how it can create a lingua-franca across the industry that benefits everyone, and without compromising the profits of smaller businesses.

As pressure to be sustainable continues to gain momentum, the time for our sector to collaborate is now.

1

Leave a Reply

Avatar for Alex Doll Alex Doll says:

Great!