{"title":"Smart farms? Ethnographic insights from agricultural digitalization in Turkey","authors":"Ziya Kaya","doi":"10.1111/1467-8322.12893","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Agriculture in Turkey is amid profound transformations through digitalization, aiming for improved efficiency (more food from less land) and socioeconomic and ecological sustainability. This article examines farmers in western Turkey using so-called ‘smart’ agriculture technologies, particularly drones. Drones provide quantification and visualization of farms’ conditions and enable farmers to apply chemicals accordingly. Yet, in Turkey, drones are not equally accessible to all farmers owing to their high cost and incompatibility with some farms’ ecologies and existing technologies. Using drones also necessitates taking additional steps to align with Turkey's existing national security measures. Drawing on fieldwork with farmers and technicians in Turkey, I show how farmers participate in addressing these sociomaterialities of drones and the modalities of the state, exploring novel socialities and surveillance practices they have gone through.</p>","PeriodicalId":46293,"journal":{"name":"Anthropology Today","volume":"40 3","pages":"13-17"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Anthropology Today","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-8322.12893","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ANTHROPOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Agriculture in Turkey is amid profound transformations through digitalization, aiming for improved efficiency (more food from less land) and socioeconomic and ecological sustainability. This article examines farmers in western Turkey using so-called ‘smart’ agriculture technologies, particularly drones. Drones provide quantification and visualization of farms’ conditions and enable farmers to apply chemicals accordingly. Yet, in Turkey, drones are not equally accessible to all farmers owing to their high cost and incompatibility with some farms’ ecologies and existing technologies. Using drones also necessitates taking additional steps to align with Turkey's existing national security measures. Drawing on fieldwork with farmers and technicians in Turkey, I show how farmers participate in addressing these sociomaterialities of drones and the modalities of the state, exploring novel socialities and surveillance practices they have gone through.
期刊介绍:
Anthropology Today is a bimonthly publication which aims to provide a forum for the application of anthropological analysis to public and topical issues, while reflecting the breadth of interests within the discipline of anthropology. It is also committed to promoting debate at the interface between anthropology and areas of applied knowledge such as education, medicine, development etc. as well as that between anthropology and other academic disciplines. Anthropology Today encourages submissions on a wide range of topics, consistent with these aims. Anthropology Today is an international journal both in the scope of issues it covers and in the sources it draws from.