A Tale of Two Green Valleys: Power Struggles over Data-Driven Agro-Innovation in Kenya's Rift Valley and California's Central Valley

数字技术正在产生大量关于农场的数据，从土壤特征、当地气候条件、种植模式、化肥和农药的使用、劳动实践到财务行为等信息。收集和使用这些数据可以提高效率，更有针对性地使用化学品，提高农业生产力和加强协调能力。它还可能为农业以外的金融和房地产公司以及税务机构和环境机构等公共部门带来价值。然而，这些影响不会是中性的；一些演员将比其他人受益更多。这个项目问的是谁在获取数据的经济和战略价值？大企业是否会利用这些新的数据基础设施更深入地渗透市场并控制农业系统？或者，小农户是否会利用它们（通过有机或公平贸易标签）使他们的商品“去商品化”，从而增加他们的利润和安全？这些制度会导致劳动力受到更多控制，从而削弱劳工权利吗？或者这些制度会允许工会加强对工人的保护吗？这些体系会加强美国实体的力量，还是会为非洲经济参与者提供竞争环境？很大程度上取决于治理如何演变，以及哪些组织要求所有权和控制权。我们的项目采用“政治经济学”的方法来解决这些问题，从而记录政治、思想和意识形态在决定谁从增长和数字化转型中受益方面所起的作用。我们在农场的地方层面（所有者、工人、贸易商和农业综合企业之间）和国家/国际层面（政策制定者和企业之间关于公共政策和创新融资）研究了参与者之间对经济和战略价值控制的权力斗争。我们研究了两个山谷中的权力斗争：一个发达的农业集群（加利福尼亚的中央山谷）和一个发展中的农业集群（肯尼亚的裂谷）。这两个山谷都是多产的农业中心地带，也靠近先进的技术集群。我们采取这种跨国方式，因为美国的商业利益是非洲农业的一部分；不了解发展的力量和影响，就无法理解发展。此外，美国农业内部正在进行关于数据所有权和商业化的极其重要的对话，这可能会对非洲和包括英国在内的其他地区产生影响。这个项目很重要，因为世界各国政府都在优先考虑对科技行业的公共支持，因为它被视为未来经济增长和就业的驱动力。为了确保这种增长既具有包容性又具有变革性，公职人员和公众必须了解数字创新政策的分配影响，特别是在农业领域，这是一个在世界各地雇用大量贫困人口的部门，也是人类生活的生态基础。数据无疑将彻底改变我们的经济，但我们必须确保它以包容和可持续的方式实现这一目标。实际上，我们的项目旨在为政策制定者提供证据和想法，帮助他们制定更智能、更具包容性的数字经济政策，并提高农民和工人对如何扩大对其隐私和经济基础设施的控制的基层意识。我们通过与受益人举行传统的外联会议、政策简报和出版物，以及与专业记者共同制作的娱乐和无障碍播客来实现这一目标。在学术上，我们的目标是理论化政治和思想在影响谁从技术创新中受益和损失方面所起的作用，并为创新和数字经济的政治经济学领域提供发展和跨国视角

Digital technologies are generating massive amounts of data on farms, ranging from information about soil characteristics, local climatic conditions, cropping patterns, use of fertiliser and pesticide, labour practices, to financial behaviour. The collection and use of this data may lead to greater efficiency, more targeted use of chemicals, higher farm productivity and stronger coordination capacity. It is also likely to bring value to those outside agriculture such as finance and real estate firms, as well as public authorities like tax agencies and environmental bodies. Yet these impacts will not be neutral; some actors will benefit more than others.This project asks who is capturing the economic and strategic value of data? Will big business use these new data infrastructures to more deeply penetrate markets and control agricultural systems? Or will small-holder farmers use them to 'de-commodify' their goods (through organic or fair-trade labeling), and increase their profits and security? Will these systems lead to more controlled workforces and thus weaker labour rights? Or will these systems allow unions to enforce stronger worker protection? Will these systems strengthen the power of US based entities or will they even the playing field for African economic actors? Much depends on how governance evolves and which groups claim ownership and control. Our project takes a 'Political Economy' approach to these questions and thereby documents the role that politics, ideas and ideology play in determining who benefits from growth and digital transformations. We examine power struggles between actors over the control of economic and strategic value both at the local level on farms (between owners, workers, traders and agribusiness) and at the national/international level (between policy-makers and firms over public policy and finance for innovation).We examine these power struggles in two valleys: a developed agricultural cluster (California's Central Valley) and a developing agricultural cluster (Kenya's Rift Valley). Both valleys are hugely productive agricultural heartlands and are also situated near to advanced technological clusters. We take this transnational approach because US commercial interests are part of African agriculture; one cannot understand development without understanding their power and influence. In addition, extremely important conversations are taking place within US farming about data ownership and commercialization, which are likely to have implications in Africa and other regions including the UK.This project is important because governments all over the world are prioritizing public support for the tech industry as it is seen as the driver of future economic growth and employment. To ensure that this growth is both inclusive and transformative, it is vitally important for public officials and the public to understand the distributional impacts of digital innovation policies, particularly in agriculture, a sector that employs huge numbers of poor people across the world and serves as the ecological base of human life. Data will no doubt revolutionise our economies but we must ensure it does so in inclusive and sustainable ways.Practically, our project aims to equip policy-makers with evidence and ideas to help them develop smarter and more inclusive digital economy policies and to raise ground-level awareness among farmers and workers about how they can expand control over their privacy and economic infrastructures. We do so through traditional outreach meetings with beneficiaries, policy briefs and publications but also through entertaining and accessible podcasts, co-produced with professional journalists. Academically, we aim to theorize the role that politics and ideas play in influencing who benefits and loses from technological innovations, and to contribute developmental and cross-national perspectives to the field of the political economy of innovation and digital economy