Digital technologies, hyper-transparency and smallholder farmer inclusion in global value chains

Digital technologies such as sensors, drones, satellites and blockchain are seen as a promising developments for value chain transparency. These technologies are often envisioned to enable more detailed, objective, and complete information collection, and to create secure, transparent and democratic ways of information sharing. The development of such digitally-enabled modes of information collection and analysis leads to what we term the rise of ‘hyper-transparency’. Hyper-transparency is a digitally-enabled, real-time, and often automated mode of data collection and analysis for management and governance of global value chains (GVCs). In the field of agriculture and sustainable development a number of organisations and companies are proclaiming the benefits of hyper-transparency for smallholder farmers. However, it is still unclear how the use of these technologies influences transparency, and what effects it may have on the sustainability and inclusiveness of global value chains. The aim of this paper is to describe how hyper-transparency can enhance smallholder market inclusion. There are a number of ways to define ‘inclusive business’. They generally refer to businesses that integrate smallholders into markets such that activities benefit the business community while enabling the poor to move out of poverty. In this paper the authors extend the definition beyond smallholders’ access to markets, such that inclusiveness enables farmers to become competitive in local or international markets