Farm and food policy innovations for the digital age

We urgently need to rethink public policy interventions to help countries navigate opportunities and challenges linked to digital advances in the food economy. The promise of digital disruption in agriculture is enormous. Producing food and fiber is a data- and capital-intensive business. On the data side, a farmer’s feel for how to combine seeds, soil, water, and weather can now be complemented by mobile-phone based extension services, remote sensing data, and artificial intelligence. On the capital side, the “sharing economy” creates amazing new opportunities for the optimal deployment of capital assets—tractors are agriculture’s Ubers and grain elevators are its Airbnbs. Advances in fintech are changing traditional land-based collateralization models and mobile banking is putting access right into farmers’ pockets. The World Bank is embarking on a study on digital disruption of agriculture and food to ask hard questions on the role of public policy in maximizing potential gains in efficiency, equity, and sustainability.