Digital Agriculture: An Analysis from the Perspective of Data Colonialism

Abstract

This article discusses data colonialism to exploratively analyze some implications of the so-called Digital Agriculture, considering the center-periphery relationship of the international system. First, we present a discussion of data colonialism to understand the logic of data extraction for capital accumulation and expand that discussion to understand the center-periphery relationship underlying this logic. The third part of the article provides a mapping of the main technologies associated with Digital Agriculture and some of the main companies that provide them. Lastly, we reflect on the interests involved in Digital Agriculture and some implications of this movement for the center-periphery relationship. We conclude that the current sociotechnical arrangement that enables Digital Agriculture reproduces international asymmetries, since the periphery remains subordinate to an exploitation and appropriation logic that benefits companies based in the center of the system.