Perspectives On Digital Farm Data Ownership

This study provides information about current farm data ownership practices, perceptions among producers’ regarding the value of farm data, their willingness to pay for access to farm data, and the degree to which farmland leases specify ownership of farm data.

Results indicate farmers are not generally willing to pay higher premiums to acquire historical farming data on rented farmland and operator-landlords are not generally interested in charging their tenants for farm data. This is likely driven by the rarity of farm data use agreements in farmland lease contracts since only 6% of renters report having a lease that clearly specified farm data ownership.

However, farmers who rent a large portion of the land they operate express a higher willingness-to-pay, which may reflect their exposure to information asymmetries in farmland markets. Farmers largely believe that farm data collected on rented farmland is the legal property of the operator collecting the data, although farmers who rent land out to other operators are less inclined to agree that tenant-farmers own the data.

As farm data collection continues to grow, data sharing agreements between landowners and tenants may become more popular.

Key Words: Farm data ownership, value, sharing agreements