UK Ag industry looks to standardise principles on Farm data
- By: "Farm Tender" News
- Cropping & Grain News
- Jun 17, 2018
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A set of principles will be made to help promote and facilitate data sharing within the agricultural industry as significant barriers and concerns remain over its use.
Creating a best practice guide to sharing farm data is the focus of a new consultation launched by the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB).
Run in partnership with agri software business Rezare Systems, the principles seek to change perception over the use of data.
Based on input from farmers and the wider value chain, the aim is for an industry-supported code to be produced later this year.
While agriculture is making some progress in developing data-rich tools, there remain significant barriers to accessing and re-using farm data for the good of the sector, much of which relates to a lack of trust about who's going to do what with the data.
AHDB Chief Strategy Officer, Tom Hind said finding an effective way of removing the frictions surrounding the sharing of data is a critical step in unlocking the full potential of that data in the industry.
“We need some robust principles in place that all players in the farm data chain can align with,” Mr Hind said.
“Getting data flowing in a transparent, secure and trusted environment needs this step and as a levy funded organisation, we believe it right we take this forward on behalf of our industry.”
'Vital project'
Rezare's UK managing director, Julian Gairdner said it is a "vital project" for the sector.
“Our experience of leading a similar initiative in New Zealand should enable us to take the learning from that project so we can develop a set of principles that reflect, and work effectively in, the GB context,” Mr Gairdner said.
“New Zealand’s code was a critical step, allowing the development of a set of farm data standards and data exchange protocols. British agriculture needs a similar foundation on which effective data sharing should be built and which needs to work across the key farming sectors.”
The UK agricultural industry should harness the power of data to ensure future success, according to data experts, who also say 90 percent of data collected is wasted.
Farmers harness the data to use sensors for soil sampling and mobile apps, cameras and drones to monitor pests and diseases, for example.
According to data analysts Proagrica, data is going to impact agriculture more than anything else in the 21st century.
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