Author: Isabelle M. Carbonell
Publisher: SSRN
Publication Year: 2016
Summary: The following article discusses how the use of data and technology is rapidly increasing in the agriculture industry. Many big-time companies and other large agriculture firms or farms have access to data that is allowing them to improve their farming such as knowing current trends, being able to predict how crops will grow next season, and more. One company called Climate Corp even has sensors on the tractors tracking every movement. Eventually these trackers will collect enough information that farmers will not even be needed. The tractors will be able to be programmed to know when to irrigate, when to harvest crops, etc. While the availability of data and technology is great for some, it poses issues for others. Due to access to data and technology being expensive, smaller companies and farms are not able to take advantage of these advanced techniques their competor is using. This is causing a huge gap in the agriculture industry between multi-million agriculture companies/farms that have all of the data and technology they need, compared to a small family farm that may not even have a computer. When creating this data and technology, it needs to be taken into consideration how it could possibly cause disparities between individuals or industries, and try and find out how they can make it more accessible to a wider audience.
