Why entrepreneurship flourishes in the countryside

Large farms see their work as inputs, outputs, land value and land ownership. Small farmers frame their work as one of ecology and stewardship. Their land is a place of relations.

The tech that we imagine to be solutions, such as online coding classes for farmers or factory work in cities, are framed as one-way relationships, with tech supposedly benefiting rural areas. But when we see things like AI farming pigs at scale or small farmers turning their land into pearl ponds, it is not because tech found a solution. It is because small farmers can't compete on a global scale.

Much of the technology revolves around our consumption and entertainment in the cities. But the most thoughtful innovation is happening in places outside of Silicon Valley or San Francisco. 

Tech alone is not always the solution. In Yangguang, a rice-farming village, the local agricultural bureau encouraged farmers to implement chemical fertilisers, pesticides, and industrial farm machinery. The modern protocols led to a decline in soil quality. The villagers turned this around with organic farming. While tech did help the village steward their land, the people, not tech, steered the decisions.

The approach that is without boundaries and ambitions to scale reminds us of the humility and innovation, the ability to change political and social structures.

Tech should be seen as affecting a set of relations, ecologies and environments. In the village, innovation is an ecosystem that doesn't scale across thousands of users but across the spectrum of time, regenerating the soil and community ties from season to season.