"When thinking of agriculture, companies like Google or Amazon are rarely associated with it," explains lead author Monja Sauvagerd, a doctoral candidate at the Institute for Food and Resource Economics at the University of Bonn under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Monika Hartmann. "Our study shows that digital platforms not only enable more efficient agricultural practices but also tend to reinforce existing market structures and create new dependencies. Big Tech companies not only provide the technological infrastructure but also act as strategic partners to agribusinesses. Their influence on the agricultural sector is growing as they provide key technologies such as cloud services and AI models."
Oligopolistic Platformization: New Collaborations
In their research, the authors introduce the term "oligopolistic platformization" to describe the close collaboration between multinational agribusinesses such as Bayer, John Deere, and BASF, and technology giants such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. Unlike the emergence of platforms in other sectors, this dynamic reinforces existing power structures instead of fundamentally changing them. This poses the risk of further market concentration.
Digital platforms like John Deere's "Operations Center" or Bayer's "Climate FieldView" enable agricultural operations to make decisions based on real-time data. Sensors, satellites, and tractors generate data that can be integrated into so-called "digital twins" to simulate and optimize agricultural processes. This promises not only more efficient use of resources such as water and fertilizers but also higher crop yields.
Efficiency Meets Dependency
The study highlights that these technologies also present challenges. Many platforms are controlled by few large corporations, increasing the risk that farms will become increasingly dependent on these companies. At the same time, there is a lack of connectivity between the platforms of different companies, meaning that data often remains trapped in isolated systems ("silos"). This makes it difficult for farmers to use multiple platforms. For example, platforms from major agricultural machinery manufacturers are designed to be only partially compatible with products from other manufacturers. This limits the choices available to farmers and ties them to specific providers.
Social and Economic Challenges
The study also examines how agribusinesses and Big Tech companies are developing data-driven business models that go far beyond traditional agriculture. Platforms not only support decision-making but also directly connect it with their products, such as seeds or crop protection chemicals. Companies are also working on tools to measure carbon emissions to promote more sustainable practices and provide farmers with access to carbon credits. Despite their potential, these data-driven business models are generally not yet profitable. Instead, they are cross-subsidized by the companies' established business segments to secure long-term market share.
"The platformization of agriculture differs from other industries in that it strengthens, rather than weakens, the market position of established agribusinesses,"emphasizes Sauvagerd. "Given the dynamic developments in this area, the question arises as to how access to technological infrastructures and data can be designed in a fair way so that the position of farmers is not further weakened."