Know the Basics of Your Farm Data

If a grower dropped off a truckload of grain at an elevator and then drove off without getting a scale ticket, his neighbors would consider him to be careless. If an aerial applicator sprayed a fungicide without requiring payment, her customers would see her as a generous, but bad, businesswoman.

Just like harvested grain or chemicals, farm data is a valuable commodity that growers and resellers shouldn’t be expected to give away for free.

“Growers’ data is valuable, and there’s a lot of sensitive information being stored,” says Ashley Green, commercial lead for Syngenta Digital Ag Solutions.

As growers look at different programs or technology to implement on their farms, they should ask questions to fully understand what is happening to their data. At a minimum, any program storing or collecting data should clearly explain:

1. Who has access to this data?


2. If data is accessible, how will it be used?


3. How is it stored?


4. What happens to the data if a contract or subscription is terminated?

“At Syngenta, we believe that growers own their data and should control what happens with it through a permission-based approach.”

When growers choose to share their data, they should expect a return, like localized benchmarks, agronomic recommendations or increased marketability.

“At Syngenta, we believe that growers own their data and should control what happens with it through a permission-based approach,” Green says. “I’m not saying growers should necessarily avoid companies that aggregate or have access to data, just make sure to ask the right questions to understand how it’s being used.”