Farmers Rights on Data and Ownership Issues

What do we mean by the farmers’ rights to data? Who owns data? Who is entitled to the value of the data? What is the role of privacy in the agricultural sector? There is no doubt that data-driven agriculture has increased agricultural production and productivity; reduced the risk and improved resilience in farming, brought more economic and efficient use of natural resources; and helped farmers in decision making. Increasingly agricultural technology providers (ATPs) enter the market; focusing more on aggregating farmers’ data and this has subsequently led to farmers raising concerns about data ownership and their privacy. Farmers need to be engaged in the decision making process of how collectors will use their data. They seek assurances of their privacy and control over the data. They seek transparency in their interactions with providers; they would like to receive also benefits from their data and to have access to relevant data. In this webinar, Foteini Zampati (GODAN) and Simone van der Burg (Wageningen University & Research) will explore the less known aspects of farmers’ rights to data and the legal aspect (ownership issues, IP rights, data rights) on national and international level.