An ETC Group podcast mini-series

Digital Agriculture Invades Indigenous Territory in India

In this podcast mini-series, Who Will Control the Food System, ETC Group uncovers who is pulling the strings of industrial agriculture. We dissect the latest corporate strategies and take inspiration from the peoples and movements fighting back.

In East Godavari district, Andhra Pradesh, India, an Adivasi farmer gave his personal data and information, including his telephone number, to a representative of the Indian government. In India, “adivasi” is a collective term used to refer to indigenous people.

The farmer later learnt that this information was made public and embedded in a GIS map. He joined a Farmer Producer Group and was part of a platform called Producers Market which claims to facilitate direct relationships between consumers and producers using emerging technologies and digital devices, protecting farmers from small traders who are supposedly ‘exploiting’ them. The farmer believed that this project was good for him as well as for agribusiness companies.

But was it? Just how and why are big data and tech in agriculture moving into the territories of indigenous people in India without their knowledge or consent?

In our third episode, Zahra Moloo talks to Sagari R Ramdas, a member of the Food Sovereignty Alliance in India, about the impact of disruptive technologies in indigenous territories in India. Sagari is a veterinary scientist and a popular educator at the Kudali Learning Centre. She writes and works on issues related to social justice, food sovereignty, livestock and ecological governance.

To listen: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0NKZU8pI7N57j9BEiluD0x