This replaces the “FDN visualization” drafted Dec 2021 which is here for reference.
Vision: Farmer groups have control / agency over their own data and leverage it to deliver value for their members; farmer groups have the capacity to drive the digitization effort themselves.
So what is DFN specifically? It has a few components:
Technology product
Through participatory user research, product team defines product requirements and engineering team builds
Interface for capturing and viewing data (today, this is KDE)
Photos and voice notes as method of data entry; look back to some of the ideas we explored w NavanaTech
Coordination and communication between members (expect a lot of in-person meetings and Whatsapp at present; what if anything needs to be formalized, eg, decisions made by the farmer group BOD)
[Decentralized?] data storage
Tokens as an incentive and governance mechanism
Data model; if some structure is imposed, it could support interoperability and make the data more usable externally
Visibility and access to data collected from other sources (data wallet fits here?)
Interface to share data with value-add service providers storage (consent manager fits here?)
“Go to market” or how do we drive adoption in the real world
Entry points; what is a value prop that drives farmer group adoption of the technology product?
How do farmer groups learn about DFN? Do we leverage SRLM partners as a channel to reach farmer groups? Or resource institutions? Or entities like NABARD and SFAC?
How do farmer groups on-board and see value from the technology product; what handholding support do we provide?
A data officer or on-ground resource embedded within farmer group
Training and capacity building content on topics like data literacy; can look to the FPO videos we are producing (why join an FPO, how to do a business plan) as reference
Who are the entities that use the data generated by farmers? What are their pain points and how does DFN address these?
Do we build integrations with organizations who leverage data generated by farmers and is this done as part of FS? Vineet Singh
Economic and governance model
When we say farmers “own” the data, what does this mean?
What is the legal entity that is building and maintaining the software? And what about the data?
Data Trust, Data Cooperative, DAO
What is the cost of delivering the DFN services and do farmer groups pay to access?
consider a sliding subsidy scale; eg. 100% subsidy in Years 1 and 2 then dropping by 1/3 in subsequent years
How is this entity funded?
How are decisions made?
What role do product users / farmer groups play in terms of governance of this entity
In a Web3 model, tokens show up for funding and decisions making as well
Open things:
Where does policy stuff fit? Specifically, how does the data ownership model contemplated here relate to - in India - IDEA/Agristack and some future Data Protection legislation? What about Ethiopia and Kenya?
Does Farmstack have similar components? The details will obviously be different but might be helpful to breakdown along similar lines. Vineet Singh