Doctoral Dissertation Research: Digital Farming Technologies, Traditional Knowledge, and Agrarian Livelihoods

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This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). Population shifts and shrinking agricultural land are increasing pressure on agricultural production, leading to food insecurity and economic, social and political instability in many regions. A range of private and public institutions aim to increase efficiency (more food from less land) by integrating digital farming technologies that provide farmers with algorithm-generated recommendations to predict and manage their farming (soil, plants, inputs, timing), finances (budgeting, credit) and insurance. They also seek to revive and incorporate farmers’ traditional knowledge and practices into the digital applications to promote agricultural innovation in food and enhance socio-economic welfare. This research project investigates the everyday experiences of the farmers with digital farming technologies and the impacts of these technologies on their farming knowledges, practices and income. In addition to providing funding for the training of a graduate student in anthropology in the methods of empirical, scientific data collection and analysis, the findings of this research will be disseminated to governmental and non-governmental organizations with the aim of improving social, economic, and ecological conditions of farmers and democratizing access to digital platforms and data in food systems. This research project examines what traditional knowledge and practices of farmers are being revived and retained and/or abandoned by digital farming technologies and what the effects are on farmers’ farming practices and income. To answer these questions, the researcher conducts archival research, analyzes digital datasets, and interviews, participates in and observes the work of farmers who are engaging in the digital farming projects and farmers who are not scientists, engineers and public officials. This research enhances scientific understanding of how emergent technologies and longstanding know-how interact in the production of food, contributing to ethnographic work on the technopolitics of food systems.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.