Data Governance in Digital Agriculture: Comparing Regulatory, Market-Based, and Commons Approaches

Abstract

Speakers: Monja Sauvagerd Interoperability has become a central site of governance in digital agriculture. As digital infrastructures increasingly determine how machinery, platforms, and cloud systems interact, access to and reuse of data are shaped not only by technical standards but also by institutional design and power relations. This seminar compares how different governance logics – regulatory, industry-led, proprietary, and commons-oriented – structure interoperability in digital agriculture and influence innovation, competition, and equity. Drawing on a comparative case study approach and expert interviews across multiple regions, we develop a typology that distinguishes: (1) regulatory and state-supported frameworks that seek to create a regulated commons; (2) industry-led coordination mechanisms that organise technical standards but often produce selective club goods; (3) proprietary intermediation, in which commercial data integrators monetise controlled interoperability; and (4) cooperative and open-source approaches that pursue governed commons but face structural limitations. Although analytically distinct, these models rarely operate in isolation. In practice, regulatory, market-based, and commons-oriented mechanisms frequently overlap, producing hybrid arrangements in which legal mandates, technical standards, commercial services, and cooperative infrastructures are tightly interwoven. These hybrids often manage, rather than resolve, structural asymmetries, making access a governed privilege embedded in architectures, contracts, and market dependencies. By foregrounding interoperability as a political and institutional struggle rather than a purely technical challenge, this seminar contributes to debates on platform governance and highlights the need for governance models that align private incentives with broader public value.