Enabling a Smart and Equitable Agriculture Ecosystem

Digitization in agriculture has rapidly accelerated over the past decade and the pace of innovation continues to increase. Innovative technologies such as blockchain-based supply chain management solutions, Al-based digital agronomy, autonomous and semi autonomous machines, and loT/remote sensing solutions have created an overwhelming amount of information.

This has all been in the service of feeding a rapidly growing population under increasingly challenging climate conditions. However, to truly accomplish this goal of feeding the world, solutions must now become more synergistic and the underlying standards that are required for this do not exist.

The goals of this group are to understand the current state of ag data interoperability (e.g., through workshops and conferences) and recommend best practices and guidelines for increasing collaboration around ag data collection, security, and management. Within these collaborations, we will propose standards and certificates for data providers and consumers to accelerate innovation.

To achieve these goals, we will start by gathering information from stakeholders to identify current pain points and opportunities as well as examining potential solutions. As we refine our understanding of the current landscape of problems and solutions, we will focus on platform-level interoperability to facilitate data compatibility and flow between key technologies across on-farm, supply chain, and end use.

Proposed deliverables and outcomes from this Industry Connections activity may include documents (e.g., white papers, reports), proposals for standards, conferences and workshops, etc. The deliverables of this activity will be:

• White paper (framing the problems, current architectures, )
• Standards and certifications gap analysis
• Recommendations for best practices and guidelines for on-farm, supply chain, and end-user collaboration
• Proposals for IEEE standards and/or certifications
• Workshops/conferences

We welcome new participants from large and small corporations, academia, industry, and government agencies that are interested in Smart Agriculture. Members will include, but are not limited to:

• Machinery & hardware manufacturers
• Input providers & retailers
• Ag software vendors
• Researchers

We consider stakeholders to include technologies in the following areas:

• Digital Agronomy & Record Keeping, particularly data required for Al/ML applications
• Sensing/loT
• Supply Chain Management
• Future Drivers, such as weather and climate monitoring, predictions, and biofuels.

To learn more about the activity and how to join, please express your interest by filling out the Enabling a Smart and Equitable Agriculture Ecosystem interest form.