Farm Tender

Ag Tech Sunday - Understanding farmer perspectives on Ag data

By Drew Slattery - Manager, Conservation Strategy and Communication at Farm Journal Media

According to research by The Sustainability Consortium (TSC), almost half (49%) of the food and beverage companies working with TSC to improve their supply chain’s sustainability could not determine the on-farm production and management practices for their agricultural inputs in 2019.

Think about that for a second: almost half of the major food and beverage companies working with TSC on supply chain sustainability reporting couldn’t determine how the corn, wheat, soybeans and other crops their products are made of were produced at the farm-level.

Many of these companies have ambitious supply chain sustainability goals to substantially reduce their environmental footprint over the coming years. How can they expect to achieve these goals if they have no visibility into farm-level production, the very foundation of their supply chain?

They can’t, and this sobering reality is beginning to sink in.

But why does this lack of visibility into on-farm production data exist? What is driving it, and how can we change that to facilitate better data flows from the farm-level to the rest of the downstream supply chain?

My colleagues and I at Farm Journal’s Trust In Food initiative partnered with TSC in early 2020 to begin to answer these questions.

To do this, we undertook a first-of-its-kind survey of American farmers, ranchers and growers to understand their perspectives on the realities of farm-level data collection and sharing. Nearly 400 farmers from more than 40 states completed the survey, providing us with a wealth of insights on behaviors, attitudes and barriers/opportunities related to farm-level data collection and sharing. You can access the full report here. 

What we learned, is that many data collection and sharing solutions available to farmers:

  • Don’t meet the farmer’s needs
  • Create too much potential risk for the farmer
  • Are locked behind barriers farmer’s can’t (and shouldn’t be expected to) overcome alone

Data Solutions Don’t Meet Farmer Needs

In our research, we found that only about 30% of those who used data management software during the 2019 season said the software meets all their needs and they are satisfied with it. Additionally, farmers were nearly 20% more likely to identify a benefit to their operation for collecting production data, compared to sharing that data with downstream supply chain actors. When given the chance to tell us their side of the story in their own words, the most common answers to open ended questions show a marketplace of unequal financial benefit from the sharing of farm-level data; with downstream organizations profiting over and above the farmers who share the production data to begin with.

Farmers aren’t receiving enough of a profitability increase and/or increase in decision making ability by collecting/sharing their production data - so there is little incentive for them to do so. Especially in the face of COVID-19, trade-war induced market fluctuations, and negative climatic impacts.  

Data Solutions Create Too Much Risk

Nearly 60% of farmers don’t trust the federal government or private companies with the use of their data. Almost 75% of farmers identified the threat of increased regulation as a primary reason they don’t collect and share more farm-level data. The open ended questions underscore the brittleness of the farmland rental landscape in the Midwest, according to Nancy in Illinois: “we are very careful about the data we share, because it puts our business in jeopardy of being picked apart by the neighboring operations and having our livelihood stolen out from under us.”

Data Solutions Are Locked Behind Barriers

Lack of access to the required capital, equipment and training were all identified as barriers which prevent data collection and sharing for nearly 70% of farmers. Lack of data network access (internet/cellular) is a barrier for 63%. Data collection and sharing comes with undue burden for farmers, burdens that too often aren't shared.

Call to Action

So what can the industry do to empower farmers to collect and share production data, enabling those lofty sustainability goals to become reality?

  • Adapt and overhaul data solutions to provide equitable financial benefits and satisfy farmer information needs.
  • Remove, reduce or otherwise provide solutions to the various access barriers farmers face to collecting/sharing data.
  • Cultivate a business and normative culture among farmers that understands, values and trusts the critical role data collection and sharing play in both their operation's success and that of U.S. agriculture as a whole.

A farmer’s production and management data can help tell their stewardship story in an indisputable way. By ensuring farmers’ needs are met and concerns are addressed, farm-level data collection and sharing can be rapidly scaled and the positive impact of data-informed decisions on U.S. farm acres and throughout supply chains can be expanded.