Equitable Tech Workshop, Tuesday, November 5, 2024
Maria opened with a group discussion of barriers to adoption of AgTech:
Language
Tech literacy
Wifi connectivity
Computer access
Compulsory
Abandonment of applications esp creative projects by software developers
Top reasons for farms adopting tech:
Make tasks lighter
Saves labor
#3?
Manpreet introduced the Development of Appropriate Technology for Small Farms: Principles and Guiding Questions that UCANR is working on. Group feedback and discussion of each principle.
- Human-centered
Comments:
- going beyond human-centered to center microbial life (from self-evaluation)
- developed for/by permaculture enthusiasts (from self-evaluation)
- since farmers have very limited time, work with farm advisors to get baseline set up before engaging farmers (from self-evaluation)
- Appropriately Scaled
Comments:
- depends on region and who’s willing to participate in data curation (from self-evaluation)
- designed for small spaces/farms (from self-evaluation)
- Affordable
Comments:
- Juliet-Need for a cost benefit analysis template (ACTION ITEM?)
- Carlos-how much $ is affordable?
- Free and open-source but economic outcomes not ensured (from self-evaluation)
- User-Friendly
Comments:
- Soil sample data needs to be interpreted
- Online marketing tools need to be backed by other farmers or support such as YouTube
- Should be intuitive
- Iterative improvement of UI (from self-evaluation)
- designed as a learning tool but has some expert concepts (from self-evaluation)
- De-Risked Experimentation
Comments:
- Compensation for data
- Compensation for insights versus personal data
- Data use clarity/who profits on data
- Using networks of farmers and networks of developers
- Guidelines for compensation (can CAFF share?)
- Trials, demos, equipment lending library, tool sharing
- Collaboration
- Use cases to demonstrate appropriateness
- Be clear on where tech fails/falls short
- Protective of Privacy
- See comments from #5, above, about data collection clarity and compensation
- Can data be stored locally? (from self-evaluation)
- No data collection unless opting in to analytics and even then no data is collected or saved. (from self-evaluation)
- Strengthening Local Economies
Comments:
- Digital E-commerce can help to shorten the supply chain
- Tool sharing for processing farm waste
- Increases self-sufficiency (from self-evaluation)
Participants worked on and discussed the self-evaluation of appropriate technology, based on the principles above.
Discussion:
Transactional software: trust, data privacy, helps develop local economies
Physical safety around semi-autonomous equipment
Does your product have safety features? Farm workers?
Whose values and intentions are behind the development of this technology, use of data?
*ASABE has standards and regulations for technology, policy makers