By Jason Tatge, Farmobile co-founder and CEO

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We’re at an inflection point in our industry, where precision ag techniques are taking off, the value of field data is being realized, and the fight for ownership is coming to a head. As big vendors take their seat at the table, farmers are at risk of losing control.

That’s why I recently wrote this post for Venturebeat’s Heartland Tech, on the risk of vendor lock-in and how we, as farmers and trusted advisors, can combat it.

Digital ag is still in its early days, and as more and more farmers come online, they face a very real risk that vendors are going to try to get them locked into their data systems and policies. That means that not only are the switching costs high (both in cost and loss of data), but the valuable data they have collected from their own fields is no longer under their control.

And far too often, this is all written vaguely in the fine print.

At Farmobile, we believe that it is the farmer’s right to have complete and untempered control of the data they harvest. We’re proud that farmers across the country are starting to ask tough questions about data from their many providers.

Who owns it? How will it be used? How do I extract maximum value from it? How do I put a “fence” around my data so that it’s protected for future generations?

I hope that as these questions become more clear and more pervasive, so do principles of openness, brand agnosticism, transparency.

As I say in the post:

“The more that farmers demand transparency and ownership over their data, the more the market is going to respond. We need to show companies that we’re deciding who we’re buying our equipment from based on data capabilities and policies, and that changes need to be made. This is the best way to ensure a future where farmers have rights to, ownership of, and access to their data, including the ability to profit from it.”

You can read the full post here. Thanks for listening.