'The price for' free 'digital technology'

Strikingly often I hear that the farmer himself does not want to pay for it. Indeed, digital innovation is largely financed by others. I think you pay a high price for that as a farmer.

If digital innovation is financed by companies that give technology to the farmer (almost) for free, then as a farmer you will almost certainly lose the opportunity to value the data. These companies rely on a strategy of maximizing access to data, followed by aggregation, analysis and sale of the results to the highest bidder. The power over the value in the data lies disproportionately in this model in the hands of the collector.

The price you pay for the free technology is that if something happens that is not in your interest, you can hardly do anything about it. As a farmer you are not the customer, but the product.

If digital innovation is financed with public money, the projects often develop in a parallel universe, with other players and their own dynamics. Outcomes seldom lead to tangible results in daily practice. If the farmer does not pay for himself, it lacks commitment and control. The involvement of the farmer forms the critical filter, so that there is no guiding principle that is technically possible, but what is needed in practice. The price that is paid here is a waste of public money and goodwill among all those involved.


To come to another type of digital innovation, the farmer will have to pay for technology himself. And especially take more control yourself. Working together with colleagues in new data partnerships in small, focused experiments. Building your own infrastructure step by step, and data about which you have complete control. With which you also enforce a negotiating position on large chain parties. That is another bargain.