Digital Revolution in Agriculture: Fitting for Agroecology?

Digital technologies in the agricultural sector are highly promoted. However, do they offer a dimension of real sustainability, as regarded within the agroecological approach, or is it just another business trend? These new technologies are clearly market-oriented and they bring farmers dependency on costly tools, mostly not affordable by smallholders farmers, while the decision support tools they offer, often ignore ecological processes, being simply based on models for optimizing conventional production and creating unintended needs. However, alternative examples of digital innovation that support sustainable agriculture can exist as an alternative strategy, especially when the development of innovative tools includes a peer-to-peer planning framework and user involvement within the reach of an Economy of the Commons.