Important Policy Parameters for the Development of Inclusive Digital Agriculture: Implications for the Redistributive Land Reform Program in South Africa

Abstract

The creation and deployment of digital technologies throughout the agro-food system contribute to achieving Sustainable Development Goal nine. However, various digitalization studies offer limited insight into the policy issues and solutions around emerging technologies and big data systems in agriculture. There is a need for an additional understanding of how agricultural policymaking should respond to the usage of digital technologies in the agri-food sector. Furthermore, evidence is limited on how existing agricultural government programs such as land reform can be linked with digitalization policy. This systematic review of literature sought to determine the transformation that is needed in the political and economic environment for the digital revolution to take place within South African land reform agriculture. A thematic analysis of data sampled from ProQuest Central, Scopus, Dimensions, and Google Scholar reveals five areas of intervention from agricultural policymaking. The digital revolution in agriculture can be brought about by transforming digital infrastructure, data interoperability and governance, digital markets, the compatibility of government incentives with the private sector, and the digital cultural landscape. This essay contributes to agricultural policy and decision-making dialogues that pay attention to digital technologies and land reform programs in South Africa.

The Sustainability of Operations: Past, Present, Future

“…While documented examples of socially inclusive global supply chain operations management practices that benefit smallscale farmers and workers at larger farms exist, the evidence suggests that the forces exerted by global markets and global value chain management practices are typically at odds with the social inclusion of small-scale farmers and agricultural workers [220,442,585]. With the exception of some examples evidencing that the adoption of mobile phone-based technological advancements can empower small-scale farmers and improve their income, current evidence of the benefits these technologies bring for small-scale farmers is scarce and inconclusive [49,187,369]. For the global population of 2 billion living from small-scale farming, one may hope that further technological advances and cost decreases will help to overcome the barriers to effective technology deployment in developing countries discussed in Chapter 9 [187].…”

“…These efficiency improvements are important as 2 billion people live from smallscale farming, and there is little evidence that they are already significantly benefiting from technological advancement (see also Chapter 10) [49,187,369]. Their context and operations make them especially vulnerable to global warming, drought, and other forms of climate change.…”