OOS 52-5 - Can data science support transformative change in agricultural systems?

Technological innovations in agriculture are touted for their promise to improve profits, better manage pests, improve resource use efficiency, reduce pollution and mitigate climate change. However, whether new technologies, including data-driven ones, can create the transformative change needed to meet the mounting demands of society from agriculture, is debatable. To increase the likelihood that more sustainable forms of agriculture emerge from data-driven technologies will require that technological innovations are embedded within a broader ecosystem of agricultural innovation, one that we call “agroecological innovation”. This form of innovation requires innovations that integrate technological, ecological, and social components. Particularly important are processes of place-making where communities collectively define goals and carry out actions that reconstruct narratives about what agricultural landscapes should provide. Taken as a whole, this interlocking network of innovation components is a novel socio-techno-ecological system that itself requires innovation. Without an intentionally designed system of social and institutional support, the scaling up of technologies risks progressing along narrow boundaries that are not likely to advance the transformative change agriculture desperately needs.