The Digital Transformation of the Agricultural Value Chain: Discourses on Opportunities, Challenges and Controversial Perspectives on Governance Approaches

Abstract

The extent to which the digitalisation of agriculture will make a significant contribution to solving urgent sustainability challenges will depend on the design of political, legal and economic frameworks. In this context, social discourses play a central role as they not only reflect collective interpretations and systems of meaning but also reproduce power relations in “truth regimes” and prepare policy actions. While a critical scientific debate on unintended side effects of the digital transformation on agriculture has recently emerged, there is little knowledge about the discourse relations beyond academia. This article presents the results of a discourse analysis during a two-day online conference on the digital transformation of the agricultural value chain. We systematically visited and analysed sessions and presentations. The aim was to identify the main themes, concepts and ideas and different perspectives among actors from science and practice. The results show a wide range of perceived opportunities and challenges but also controversies, especially regarding governance issues such as regulation versus nonregulation, centralised versus decentralised data sharing, the appropriate design of data sovereignty models and trust and evolving inequalities. In addition, it became apparent that discourses on digitalisation are largely expert affairs. We discuss and conclude that a sustainability-oriented digital transformation requires a critical perspective, reflexivity and an adaptive governance approach where science–society collaborations play a central role.