At Platformable, we have some experience working in the agrifood sector:

Understanding the agrifood system and the digital ecosystem that can support it

Data use in agrifood systems

As a traditional, often primary, industry, the agrifood sector has been slow to digitise across the board, at times regarded low-tech¹ although specific elements of the sector are well-digitised (for example imports and exports, and transport and logistics). EMILI and the Canadian-based Centre for Agri-Food Policy Institute also point out that larger agrifood businesses tend to be more digitised than smaller producers for a variety of reasons⁵.

An impressive study by Thiaw, Asie, Lovince, Rousseau, and Celicourt⁶  describes a wide range of data use cases across the agrifood system by a range of actors, as shown below.

Overall, an uneven landscape exists where some agrifood data is held and used to inform decisions or guide strategy, while other agrifood systems areas do not even have basic building blocks in place.

For example, with the introduction of the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), it became apparent that basic data that maps each individual farm plot used to produce agrifood is not available for many commodities. A range of global and national initiatives are now seeking to build those datasets. Even where they had previously been defined, they were often stored in non-digital form, or aligned with datasets that focused on the farmer rather than the plot of land (which may change hands between various farmers over time) creating challenges for linking data on the land and its agrifood characteristics with other datasets. (This is evolving: Uganda is completing a major project to define 5 million plots of farmland in order to ensure ongoing access to Europe for Ugandan coffee farmers, DIASCA has a range of resources and tools to support due diligence data collection and reporting for farmers, and the International Trade Centre is funding efforts to advance data systems globally to ensure that small scale farmers can provide the digital evidence needed to continue exporting their products when they meet regulatory requirements).

Because digitisation of the sector has evolved in a piecemeal way, often led by industry needs, multiple datasets and approaches exist, making future interoperability a challenge. But the scale of data needed is now being recognised.

Agrifood system drivers encouraging a shift to digital ecosystems 

There are a range of drivers that are influencing the need for good data (and therefore connected digital ecosystems) across the agrifood industry sector.

The Agri-Food Systems Transformation Protocol report² describes a range of drivers that we have used as categories to identify the push towards creating agrifood open digital ecosystems around the world. We also categorised drivers using the PESTEL framework⁷.

Other agrifood digital ecosystem models

There are few clear visualisations of the agrifood digital ecosystem. There are some representations of food systems in general, such as the Food and Agriculture Organisation's model:

There has also been useful work produced by work by academics like Pryor, Casey & Dietz¹⁵:

But these visual representations describe the agrifood system (or policy context in Pryor's case) rather than representing the digital ecosystem that supports the agrifood system.

Preliminary work on establishing the European AgriData Space³ also helped identify some of the digital public infrastructure and other components needed, as well as proposing a range of ecosystem stakeholders that should be included in the model.

Mapping the agrifood digital ecosystem is challenging because there are such a diverse range of stakeholders. We have drawn on our previous work on digital ecosystems, reviewed reports from Hiebert, et al (2025)⁵, CANZA and Deloitte (2024)⁹  (and others as shown in the bibliography below), spoken with industry leaders, read academic papers, and reviewed lists of partnerships on agtech and agrifood data networks and groups to categorise the range of stakeholders we see.

Agrifood digital ecosystems at a high-level

A high-level view of a digital ecosystem shows — in a simple way — the various groups of stakeholders that participate in an open digital ecosystem⁴.

At this high-level, there are context setters who define elements of how the agrifood market should operate: this includes government legislators and policy leaders, regulators, trade authorities, standards bodies, and investors/funders.

Then there are producers and agrifood value chain actors. These stakeholders are often collecting data as well, but may not be making that data available or may not even be unaware that they have data that could be useful to themselves or others. When these producers and other actors make use of their data and share it, they are also data and API providers.

These data creators are supported by digital, data and AI tools providers, and other capacity-builders who help assist in shifting the agrifood sector towards greater digitisation (including funders).

There are also a range of components (whether that be digital tools and products, or training or guides and policies, etc), including digital public infrastructure that also support digital activities across the sector.

Once data is then available it is used by data consumers either directly or in ways that let them offer digital products and services to others.

This supports end users who gain benefits from the use of data, these can be producers themselves, context setters, or anyone else across the food system value chain. They may be using the data directly ion ways that have been prepared for use by API consumers, or via digital tools and services such as software, dashboards, reports, and presentations.

When data is used responsibly, ethically and equitably, the agrifood digital ecosystem generates benefits for society, local economies and the environment.

Agrifood digital ecosystems - Detailed model

At a more detailed level, we can map the interactions between these various stakeholders and categorise them in more defined and specific ways. The model could be used to help guide a theory of change template that shows a linear flow from context setting to benefits, but it can also be used in a non-linear manner to show interactions between any given set of stakeholders and components.

The following table shows the various entities and components in the agrifood digital ecosystem and defines their functions.

How to use the model

This model can be used at various levels:

Of course, mapping at a country level is complex and challenging and can become unwieldy apart from providing a high-level, key stakeholders-type overview. More detailed mapping is relevant for stakeholders who are actively looking for opportunities to better understand the complex interplay of how data and digital capabilities can support agrifood performance.

How to use your agrifood ecosystem map

Using our model, you can map the entities and components that are active in the agrifood digital ecosystem at the level you want as described above.

With this mapping of stakeholders, you can then strategise around key goals:

Feedback and advice

We are continuing to refine this model, as agrifood is a complex industry sector when ensuring all stakeholders are identified. We would also like to prototype using the model with specific organisations and for clear use cases.

We are also keen to further extend our reference library and would appreciate any studies or recommended papers that could help us enhance the theory underpinning our model design. For example, as we publish this today, a fascinating new report on agrifood digital public infrastructure has just been released by World Bank. We are excited to look at how the work of Nidhi Parekh and Kirti Pandey can inform and improve our approach. 

Next stages for using this model

You can now map your ecosystem at the level that meets your organisational mission and objectives.

As you look at your defined ecosystem, you can begin to consider how you want to strengthen your participation in the digital ecosystem. Key to this is understanding and defining your role and position.

From here you can strategise and prioritise your key activities and map a theory of change that defines why your proposed activities will lead to positive outcomes for you and for your constituents and for industry more broadly.

If you would like to discuss this model and help us develop it further, please reach out or book a calendly chat with me (see the widget below, while we do not use cookies the Calendly widget does).