Introduction
In contemporary discourses surrounding alternative futures in the age of platform capitalism, there is
an increasing acknowledgment of data as a shared economic resource.1 This recognition emphasizes
the importance of governing data through a community rights framework.2 Such a framework, with its
emphasis on bottom-up infrastructures, can provide viable means to equitably distribute the collective
economic value derived from data while simultaneously providing essential safeguards against the
misuse of aggregated data by Big Tech.
Within the agricultural value chain, large technology players have monopolized various parts of the supply chain, including procurement, grading, and distribution.3 The benefits expounded upon are enjoyed selectively by large farmers who can successfully integrate into a digitalized value chain,4 often at the expense of relinquishing ownership of crucial agricultural data to major tech corporations. Contrary to grassroots empowerment, the digitalization of agricultural systems is driven by the collaboration of key players in agri-tech rather than local community initiatives. This collaboration is also rapidly expanding in the Global South, exposing numerous marginalized small-scale farmers to a system of surveillance agriculture.5 In this scenario, not only do these farmers rapidly lose control over their own data, but they also find themselves unable to capitalize on aggregated data,6 which is often enclosed within the domains of Big Tech companies.
