Question 1. What are the potential entry points for government to address challenges and foster the development of digital agriculture?
Governments will need to consider potential benefits, costs and risks, and to understand the factors affecting technology uptake so that interventions can be targeted to where there is a market failure, or a public interest for digital agriculture. It is important to start with understanding how technology can help in different components of the policy cycle, and may require government bodies to expand their skillsets, invest in technology and training, or partner with other actors (both government and non-government). On the one hand, digital agriculture may create new roles or responsibilities for governments, including to enable the digital infrastructure (is there a case for governments to be a provider or a rule maker of new digital infrastructure, and under what circumstances); but on the other hand, if technology can reduce information asymmetries and transactions costs, less government intervention may be needed.
Question 2. How can the establishment of the Digital Council address the numerous barriers to adoption of these technologies?
While you address certain principles in the guide it seems that some important principles are not considered or perhaps masked. My proposal is to consider:
Reliability - The action of the Digital Council should perform reliably.
Transparency - The action of the Digital Council should be understandable and transparent.
Accountability - The action of the Digital Council should have accountability mechanisms.
Question 3: Do you think that the roles identified for the Digital Council are suitable for facing the food systems challenges outlined above?
The roles are suitable and it seems that they are based on traditional governance structures. However, while the digital council has considered ways to ensure smooth decision-making and potential work streams within the structure, it seems that there is no involvement with national focal points. If you will appoint people for every country (even digitally) than this point shall be ignored.
Question 4. What governance structure should be in place in order for the Council to serve its purpose? According to you, do you think the proposed governance scenario is politically feasible?
One important think to keep in mind when thinking about the governance structure should be Responsibility. It will be great to have some accountability governance unit – at the same level and structure as the advisory committee that will keep track and ensure implementation of whatever agenda will be set by the executive council. If something seems not right than some unit should be responsible for addressing concerns – there are always things to be improved and science and technology does not end with us! You can even assign a working groups to make sure that there will be equal access to the services and digital guidance for all members, regarding the open source tools and ensure the quality of those tools! A space should be left for citizenship and local civil organization to participate (e.g. as partners). They can best help in the process of understanding local needs and how can to create public value.
Dr. Erand Llanaj