The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in partnership with the Global Open Data on Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN) are inviting interested individuals to participate in this forum discussion on ‘Agriculture Open Data Package‘ to be held on the e-Agriculture Platform.

The initial target audience for this forum are policy-makers, researchers, open data experts, and/or agricultural experts – however, any one interested is invited to attend. This forum discussion follows immediately after the e-Forum on ICTs and Open Data in Agriculture and Nutrition.

The forum will take place from the 10 to 24 July 2017 on the e-Agriculture platform.

The purpose 

The purpose of this discussion is to reach out to the potential users of the e-Agriculture Community of Practice (CoP) to get feedback on the Agricultural Open Data Package (AgPack) and its usability. First the content of the AgPack as a resource for governments to develop their own open data strategies will be explained. Next the emphasis will be on the collection of your stories: What do you consider the key data sets for agriculture? Why do you or others need them? What are your examples of governments putting open data into action to enforce their agricultural sector? What were the hurdles that they had to overcome to realize this strategy? The moderators will point at different component of the AgPack and request for feedback on their applicability and usefulness to tackle the challenges a government faces in designing and implementing and open data policy to support it’s agricultural sector and food security in general.

The context

Achieving food security through sustainable agriculture is one of the biggest challenges of our time as enshrined in the ‘Sustainable Development Goals’. Open data can help shape solutions by enabling more efficient and effective decision-making at multiple levels across the agricultural value chain, fostering innovation via new services and applications, and driving organizational change through transparency.

The Agriculture Open Data Package (AgPack) is a resource for governments to to take the next step in publishing open data they have generated or collected. The AgPack suggests 6 policy areas where open data can support the agricultural sector and identifies 14 data categories to realize impact in the agricultural sector. For each data category the potential use of the data by the agricultural sector and the estimated effort to publish this data from government sources are discussed and examples of implementation and initiatives that support the interoperability of each data category are provided.

The AgPack also highlights 10 examples of open data in action demonstrating how governments are harnessing data to address sustainable agriculture and food security around the world.

The Agriculture Open Data Package was developed by the Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN) network, the Open Data Institute (ODI) and Open Data for Development (OD4D) and is part of a series of Open-Up Guides hosted by the Open Data Charter (ODC) which were developed following a participatory process of workshops, expert interviews and internet consultations.

With this resource completed, the Agriculture Open Data Package Working Group is going one step from version Beta to Alpha. In order to do so, the AgPack needs critiques from people in the field to answer questions like; would this resource be useful to me, do I agree with the current analysis, and how would you recommend implementing the AgPack into policy?

This discussion on the e-Agriculture Community of Practice will help fine-tune the AgPack to provide the most useful resource possible for individuals and governments anywhere in their open data journey. By framing this discussion in personal experiences, we aim to get a complete picture on challenges that policy-makers and government workers, agriculturalist, and open data experts experience in their day-to-day.

Participating in the Forum

This forum will take place from the 10th of July till 24th of July 2017. The Forum is structured into three discussion sections. Participants are free to post related comments within each respective section.

Please note:

• The forum is open to  all individuals interested in this subject and who wish to participate.
• To contribute kindly create an account here. 
• You will need to log-on to the e-Agriculture platform in order to post contribution.
• Once you have registered and logged in you can access the discussion by clicking on one of the sections at the end of this page. 

This forum will be moderated by

• Olivia Davies, Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN)
• Andre Jellema,  Data-Impact 
• Alice Van der Elstraeten, Partnerships, Advocacy and Capacity Development Division (OPC), FAO of the United Nations
• Imma Subirats, Partnerships, Advocacy and Capacity Development Division (OPC), FAO of the United Nations
• Thembani Malapela, Partnerships, Advocacy and Capacity Development Division (OPC), FAO of the United Nations

Subject Matter Experts

1. Dr Suchith Anand – Researcher, GODAN Secretariat (United Kingdom)
2. Dr Prasad ARD – Professor and Head Documentation Research & Training Centre, Indian Statistical Institute (India)
3. Dr Sridhar Gutam – Senior Scientist (Plant Physiology), ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (ICAR-IIHR) (India)
4. Richard Mugata – Information Management Specialist, Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) (Kenya)
5. Dr Vassilis Protonotarios – Researcher, Neuropublic (Greece)
6. Ruthie Musker – Research and Partnerships Support Officer, GODAN Secretariat 
7. Fiona Smith – International Development Manager, Open Data Institute (ODI)