Regulating Smart Agriculture in India: A Socio-Technical Framework for IoT and Machine Learning Data through Global Comparison

Abstract

‘Smart Agriculture’ is broadly termed as a structured transformation in global agricultural practices which includes architectures of Internet of things (IoT), wireless sensor networks and algorithms of machine learning. While this architype offers noticeable gains in efficiency of resources, optimization of yield and climate resilience, at the same time it generates vast quantity of agricultural data which is sensitive whose governance remains inadequately regulated and poorly understood. This paper examines the challenges in multidimensional aspects of data governance and cybersecurity within smart agricultural system which are IoT enabled, with a particular focus on Indian context and comparative reference to evolving regulatory frameworks globally. The paper also investigates a socio-technical analytical lens as to how diverse architectures of IoT, deployments of edge computing and data flow of multi stakeholder collectively produce vulnerabilities which are structural both technical and institutional in nature that the existing instruments of governance have been ill equipped to address. The paper critically assesses India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDPA) and thereby understanding and identifying important gaps in their suitability and applicability to agricultural data ecosystems in comparison with the newly enacted General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), AI Act, and Data Governance Act of the European Union. After a synthesis of various literature work and analysis of regulation, the paper proposes an original Socio-Technical Agricultural Data Governance Framework (STADGF) that integrates various aspects of legal, architecture and participation. While balancing innovation with data sovereignty, cybersecurity resilience and farmer rights, the framework proposes policy recommendations for agricultural stakeholders, policy makers and platform developers.