Is idealism superseding pragmatism in technology innovations for agriculture?

The world is currently organized on the basis of the minority class ownership of productive resources and the production of wealth with a view to profit and because we operate in a market system that is driven by the power of numbers, small holder farmers remain unable to  freely determining their own profit destinies. 

One way of countering this was to renew the push to promote cooperatives in the hope that aggregation and pooling of resources would offer some competitive strengths especially in the face of rent seeking middlemen who's primary strategy is to distort prices to exploit farmers. This is the reality in Kenya.

Technology on the other hand is constantly redefining how we conduct business in most sectors, opening up new opportunities and enabling unprecedented connectedness, transformation and growth.  However, although there are some success stories, by and large, this is still not happening in any significant way for agriculture.

It is emerging that most people behind technology innovations have failed to observe how the set of linked. We need to do more to understand how a value chains should work so we can better relate determine the interventions that will empower farmers.required

For instance, the idea that digital and mobile trading platforms are a cure for the problem of market access is false if the intervention fails to address the question of standards/quality. It may eliminate unnecessary actors but fail to address the challenge of post harvest losses. 

Just musing 

The answer lies in establishing strong strategic alliances that distribute responsibilities beginning at pre-production, to production and eventually post-production stages of the value chain. What we must avoid is over-obsession with technological ideas and instead focus more on how to unravel the increasingly dysfunctional market.