d5.2 agri xchange final sra_final

network for data exchange in agriculture

Final SRA ‘Common

Basis for policy making

for introduction of

innovative approaches

on data exchange in

agri-food industry’

Final Strategic Research Agenda (SRA):

Common Basis for policy

making for the introduction of innovative

approaches to data exchange in the agri-

food industry

Karel Charvat, Sarka Horakova, Sjaak Wolfert, Henri Holster, Otto Schmid, Liisa

Pesonen, Daniel Martini, Esther Mietzsch, Tomas Mildorf (WP5)

28. 11. 2012

Final

D 5.2.

agriXchange is funded by the European Commission’s 7th

Framework Programme, Contract no. 244957

About the agriXchange project

agriXchange is a EU-funded project and it is a coordination and support action to setup a

network for developing a system for common data exchange in the agricultural sector.

Project summary

Within the knowledge-based bio-economy, information sharing is an important issue. In agri-food

business, this is a complex issue because many aspects and dimensions play a role. An installed

base of information systems lack standardisation, which hampers efficient exchange of information.

This leads to inefficient business processes and hampers adoption of new knowledge and

technology. The exchange of information at whole chain or network level is poorly organised.

Although arable and livestock farming have their own specific needs, there are many similarities in

the need for an integrated approach. Spatial data increasingly plays an important role in agriculture.

The overall objective of this project is to coordinate and support the setting up of a sustainable

network for developing a system for common data exchange in agriculture. This will be achieved by:

� establishing a platform on data exchange in agriculture in the EU;

� developing a reference framework for interoperability of data exchange;

� identifying the main challenges for harmonising data exchange.

First, an in-depth analysis and investigation of the state-of-the art in EU member states will be carried

out. A platform is built up that facilitates communication and collaborative working groups, that work

on several, representative use cases, guided by an integrative reference framework. The framework

consists of a sound architecture and infrastructure based on a business process modeling approach

integrating existing standards and services. The development is done in close interaction with

relevant stakeholders through the platform and international workshops. The results converge into a

strategic research agenda that contains a roadmap for future developments.

Project consortium:

� Wageningen University & Research Center (LEI, LSR, Alterra) - The Netherlands

� KuratoriumfürTechnikundBauwesen in der Landwirtschaft (KTBL) - Germany

� MTT Agrifood Research - Finland

� Wireless Info (WRLS) - Czech Republic

� Institut de l’Elevage (ELEV) - France

� Institut de RecercaiTecnologiaAgroalimentàries (IRTA) - Spain

� Teagasc - Ireland

� Universität Rostock-Germany

� ForschungsinstitutfürBiologischenLandbau (FIBL) - Switzerland

� Altavia - Italy

� Poznan University of Life Sciences (PULS) - Poland

� ACTA Informatique - France

� Progis software - Austria

More information:

Dr. Sjaak Wolfert (coordinator) e-mail: [email protected]

LEI Wageningen UR phone: +31 317 485 939

P.O. Box 35 mobile: +31 624 135 790

6700 AA Wageningen www.agriXchange.eu

The Netherlands [email protected]

Final SRA 3

Table of Contents

Figures and Tables ............................................................................................................................... 5�

Abbreviations ........................................................................................................................................ 6�

Executive Summary .............................................................................................................................. 7�

Synthetic Summary ............................................................................................................................. 12�

1� Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 19�

1.1� Background and scope ....................................................................................................... 19�

1.2� Problem .............................................................................................................................. 19�

1.3� Objectives of study ............................................................................................................. 20�

1.4� Approach and outline .......................................................................................................... 20�

2� ICT for Agriculture Interoperability ............................................................................................... 22�

2.1� Data, information and knowledge ....................................................................................... 22�

2.2� Standardisation need for the agriculture sector .................................................................. 23�

2.3� Interoperability on farm level .............................................................................................. 24�

3� Standardisation ............................................................................................................................ 25�

3.1� Current standardisation initiatives ...................................................................................... 25�

3.1.1� ISO ................................................................................................................................. 25�

3.1.2� W3C ............................................................................................................................... 25�

3.1.3� OASIS ............................................................................................................................ 25�

3.1.4� OGC ............................................................................................................................... 25�

3.1.5� IEEE ............................................................................................................................... 25�

3.1.6� VDMA – ISOBUS ........................................................................................................... 26�

3.1.7� agroXML ......................................................................................................................... 26�

3.1.8� INSPIRE ......................................................................................................................... 26�

3.2� agriXchange results ............................................................................................................ 26�

3.3� Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 27�

4� Overview of past activities............................................................................................................ 29�

4.1� Aforo ................................................................................................................................... 29�

4.2� Rural Wins .......................................................................................................................... 31�

4.3� Valencia Declaration ........................................................................................................... 33�

4.4� eRural Brussels conference conclusions ............................................................................ 35�

4.5� Prague Declaration ............................................................................................................. 36�

4.6� aBard vision ........................................................................................................................ 37�

4.7� ami@netfood Strategic Research Agenda ......................................................................... 38�

4.8� The vision on the future value chain for 2016 by the Global Commerce Initiative .............. 39�

4.9� Study on Availability of Access to Computer Networks in Rural Areas .............................. 40�

4.10� The research agenda of the European Platform for Food for Life ...................................... 41�

4.11� Future Farm vision .............................................................................................................. 41�

4.12� The Research Agenda and the Action Plan by the Technology Platform for Organic Food

and Farming..................................................................................................................................... 47�

4.13� The third SCAR Foresight exercise .................................................................................... 48�

4 Final SRA

4.14� Cologne declaration ............................................................................................................ 49�

4.15� Vision, Strategic Research Agenda and Third Implementation Action Plan (2009) of the

European Agriculture Machinery Industry (Subplatform AET of the Technology Platform

MANUFUTURE................................................................................................................................ 51�

4.16� ICT Agri Eranet ................................................................................................................... 51�

4.17� agriXchange analysis of data exchange in agriculture in the EU27 & Switzerland ............ 53�

4.18� Conclusions from the overview of past activities ................................................................ 56�

5� Future Trends in ICT - Future Internet, Open Data and Open Source ........................................ 58�

5.1� ICT vision of Future Internet ............................................................................................... 58�

5.1.1� c@r ................................................................................................................................. 58�

5.1.2� COIN IP .......................................................................................................................... 59�

5.1.3� FI-WARE ........................................................................................................................ 60�

5.1.4� SmartAgriFood ............................................................................................................... 61�

5.1.5� agINFRA ......................................................................................................................... 62�

5.2� Open Source Software (OSS) ............................................................................................ 63�

5.2.1� Open Data ...................................................................................................................... 64�

5.3� Conclusion from Future Trends .......................................................................................... 65�

6� Future challenges for ICT for Agri-food ........................................................................................ 67�

6.1� Why are the challenges important ...................................................................................... 67�

6.2� Political and organisational challenges ............................................................................... 68�

6.3� Technological, innovation and research challenges ........................................................... 69�

7� Application Research domain for Agriculture, Food, Rural development and Environment ........ 71�

8� ICT Technologies for agri-food and rural regions......................................................................... 75�

9� SRA for standardisation in agri-food data, information and knowledge ....................................... 79�

9.1� Conclusion from SRA for standardisation ........................................................................... 87�

10� Recommendations for long-term agriXchange sustainability.................................................. 88�

10.1� Challenge 1 ........................................................................................................................ 88�

10.2� Challenge 2 ........................................................................................................................ 89�

10.3� Challenge 3 ........................................................................................................................ 89�

10.4� Challenge 4 ........................................................................................................................ 90�

10.5� Challenge 5 ........................................................................................................................ 90�

References .......................................................................................................................................... 91�

Final SRA 5

Figures and TablesFigure 1 Schema of the challenges that influence the SRA ................................................................ 14�

Table 1 Matrix of relation between Challenges and Applications research Domain ........................... 15�

Table 2 Matrix of dependencies between Applications domain and ICT development priorities ....... 16�

Figure 2 The Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom hierarchy of Ackoff [3] ....................................... 22�

Figure 3 Schematic overview of relationships between farm management and its environment (from

Sörensen et al [6]) ............................................................................................................................... 24�

Figure 4 The AFORO road mapping methodology ............................................................................. 30�

Figure 5 Framework of the Rural Wins project to describe ICT requirements and issues for rural and

maritime areas. ................................................................................................................................... 32�

Figure 6 Exchange of knowledge’s cross different levels of farm management ................................. 42�

Figure 7 C@R Reference architecture ................................................................................................ 59�

Figure 8 Future Internet Cloud Layers ................................................................................................ 60�

Figure 9 The 5-start deployment scheme for Open Data [65] ............................................................. 65�

Figure 10 Two factors that define the long-term sustainability of agriXchange ................................... 67�

Figure 11 Four chains of influence ...................................................................................................... 68�

Table 3 Matrix of relation between Challenges and Applications research Domain ........................... 72�

Table 4 Matrix of dependencies between Applications domain and ICT development priorities ........ 76�

Table 5 Agri-food standardisation needs on different level of Data-Information-Knowledge hierarchy

for different ICT Research Domains .................................................................................................... 80�

6 Final SRA

Abbreviations

CAP Common agricultural policy

DG Directorate-General of the European Commission

DG REGIO Directorate General for Regional Policy

Digital Agenda A Digital Agenda for Europe

EFITA European Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, Food and the

Environment

eRural IP eRural Integrated Project

FAO Food and Agriculture Organisation

FP7 Seventh Framework Programme

FI-PPP Future Internet Public-Private Partnership

GIS Geographic information system

HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol

i2010 A European Information Society for growth and employment

ICT Information and communication technology

INFITA International Network for Information Technology in Agriculture

KBBE Knowledge-Based Bio-Economy

LEADER European Community Initiative for assisting rural communities in improving the

quality of life and economic prosperity in their local area

PR Public relations

IoT Internet of Things

IPR Intellectual Property Rights

OSGeo Open Source Geospatial Foundation

OSI Open Source Initiative

OSS Open Source Software

RDF Resource Description Framework

RFID Radio Frequency Identification RT&D

RTD Research and Technology Development

SLA Service Level Agreement

SMEs Small and medium-sized enterprises

SWG Special Working Groups

SRA Strategic Research Agenda

URI Uniform Resource Identifier

WLAN Wireless local area network

WIMAX Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access

WTO World Trade Organization

XML Extensible Markup Language

Final SRA 7

Executive SummaryIn our networked society, standards play an important role. That is especially the case in exchanging

digital data. With “Standards” we refer to the protocols that describe how data (in so called ‘meta-

data’) and the data-exchange are defined to make a digital exchange of data between two devices

(often computers but also computer-machine interaction) possible. Such standards enable

interoperability of data, information and knowledge between systems – they ensure compatibility.

Standards can reduce choice but the big advantage is that they reduce transaction costs to share

data and promote competition (users can easily change suppliers as they are not ‘locked in’ to

complete systems). That means they can also support innovation, although the wide use of a

standard can also block progress to something better.

Standardisation (the process of setting standards) can be a problematic process. Some standards

arise automatically in the market, for instance because somebody introduces an exemplary new

product that gets a large market share (the PDF format for published documents is an example). In

other cases newcomers to the market have a big incentive to support interoperability to win market

share (e.g. MS Word supports the use of WordPerfect files). However, often it is not that easy.

New products are not always developed with standardisation in mind, which can lead to path

dependency (as is shown in the debate if the QWERTY key pad was and is still optimal). In some

cases there have been fierce debates if a certain product standard that wins in the market, is really

optimal (e.g. in video recording between the technical advanced BETAMAX and the VHS that could

record a full football match). A standard can also lead to a monopolistic position of a product, but also

a clever use or a lack of standards can lead to unbalanced market situations (Shapiro and Varian,

1999)1.

Where there is not a guarantee that good standards arise automatically, they have to be created. As

many benefit from a standard, and a standard has positive externalities, free rider behaviour and

underinvestment is not unthinkable. There is an organisational challenge to create and maintain

standards.

Often this challenge is taken up by industry organisations, especially standard setting organisations

that have clear, open procedures for that activity. For instance, in Dutch agriculture specific

organisations (like AgroConnect) financed by industry membership fees set standards for specific

EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) messages in agriculture, after developing with industry partners

and research. In Germany KTBL plays a similar role concerning AgroXML. In food-retail the barcode

is an important standard, originally developed by Albert Heijn (now Ahold) in the 1970s and proposed

to colleague-retailers. Currently GS1 maintains such standards. Some standards are set by

governments, e.g. in the framework of UN/CEFACT. In some cases such standards are regulated to

be obligatory, or are obligatory in data exchange with the government (Blind, 2004)2.

agriXchange

It is against this background that agriXchange established a network of persons and organisations for

developing a system for common data exchange in the agricultural sector. This report provides a

strategic research agenda (SRA) for future work on data exchange and standards. The objective of

1 C. Shapiro and H. Varian: The Art of Standard Wars in: California Management Review, 41-2, 1999

2 K. Blind: The Economics of Standards: theory, evidence, policy. Edgar Elgar, 2004

8 Final SRA

the SRA is to identify major challenges related to data exchange and the use of standards identified

mainly in the agriculture sector but also the agri-food industry sector.

The development of standards is based on data-models that describe the data that has to be

exchange and in a way that ensures the compatibility with the data systems at both ends of the

transfer. agriXchange investigated some cases to build a reference model for the standard setting

process itself, and implemented a practical model tool (aXTool) in the agriXchange platform to

search for and develop standards.

Future ICT use as demand for standards

To promote future standard setting in agriculture it is important to have an idea on the future use of

ICT. A review of the literature concludes that the deployment of ICT infrastructure for (standardised)

data exchange in Europe is progressing very fast. A large part of the population in Europe has the

possibility to access broadband or has permanent access to the Internet (the bandwidth is usually

lower for rural regions than for cities). However the actual use is much lower than the potential, and

especially agriculture and the rural areas are behind in the uptake of this technology. In many cases

application priorities are the same as 10 years ago. A big problem in going forward is the data,

information and knowledge exchange and interoperability. The uptake of new ICT interoperable

technologies in primary production, which will be accepted by farming sector, is an important part of

our SRA.

Our analysis learns that the last decade there is low sustainability of ICT related agri-food research

and little exchange of experiences among projects. Often similar analyses with similar results are

provided, but overall progress is slow. To overcome this problem, it is necessary to support a long-

term suitability of ICT research and to support a long-time vision for RTD development in the agri-

food sector.

We also conclude that better and faster implementation of ICT and related RTD demand more

appropriate business model thinking in addition to the current technical focus. Better and faster

implementation would also be supported by a strong professional (international) organisation which

unifies different efforts of different ICT research and development groups, but which will be also able

to protect interests of communities. The candidate for such an organisation could be the European

Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, Food and the Environment (EFITA,) but it will

be necessary to change its organisational structure.

It is important to renew dialogues for politicians to focus on ICT for rural regions as part of Horizon

2020 activities. It is not only important to support standardisation awareness, but also deployment of

new solutions necessary for rural regions. Currently, ICT for agri-food is not covered on a large scale.

It is It is important to renew dialogues with politicians to focus on ICT for rural regions as part of

Horizon 2020 activities.

Due to the global character of agriculture and food production and also because agriculture

production influences and is influenced by the environment, it is important to improve dialogue and

transfer of ICT knowledge between developed and developing countries.

The latest ICT research trends, cover three aspects: Future Internet, Open Source Software and

Open Data. Future Internet (mainly cloud computing) and Open Source Software, show two

important developments:

• Interoperability and service-oriented architecture, which allows easy replacement of one

component or service by another one. This concept is already currently broadly used in

geographic information systems.

Final SRA 9

• Support for large-scale use of Open Sources by Future Internet. Currently, Open Source

generates business for companies which customise solutions into final applications. Such

web-based solutions could generate profit for SMEs developers.

Open data initiatives and Public Sector Information are also considered important for the agri-food

sector. Until now, mainly farmers have been limited by restricted access to data, information and

knowledge. Linked Data introduces new semantic principles into Web resources and could be useful

to the agri-food sector.

Beyond future ICT use: research for far-future ICT use.

Where the previous section discussed the future ICT use with an eye to the demand for standards,

we could even look further ahead by looking to the research priorities in agriculture and ICT

research. (figure 1)

Figure 1 Challenges that affect the SRA

Technological, innovation and research challenges are seen in the area of balancing food safety and

security, energy production and environmentally and socially sound production; in supporting a better

adoption of agriculture of climatic change challenges, and to make rural regions an attractive place to

live, invest and work, promoting knowledge and innovation for growth and creating more and better

jobs. Supporting the farming community with rural education, training and awareness building in ICT

and to build new ICT models for sharing and use of knowledge by the agri-food community and in

rural regions in general are challenges clearly linked to ICT.

When it comes to research priorities on ICT in agri-food, the following research priorities have been

identified:

• Collaborative environments and trusted sharing of knowledge and supporting innovations in

agri-food and rural areas, especially supporting food quality and security.

• New (ICT) structures to serve sustainable animal farming, especially regarding animal and

human health and animal welfare.

• ICT applications for the complete traceability of production, products and services

throughout a networked value chain including logistics.

• A new generation of applications supporting better and more effective management of

sustainable agriculture production and decision making in agriculture ICT applications

supporting the management of natural resources.

• An ICT application supporting adoption of farming practices adapted to climatic changes.

• An ICT application supporting energy efficiency on farm level.

• An ICT application supporting rural development and local businesses.

• An ICT application for education, training and awareness raising.

• ICT applications reducing administrative burdens in rural areas.

10 Final SRA

Future standardisation needs: the SRA

Based on this analysis of future use of ICT in agriculture, we can address the future need for

standardisation. This leads to the following observations on data, information and knowledge

standardisation.

Concerning data standardisation, the agri-food community will mainly be the consumer of standards

coming from other domains or activities. For example activities related to Future Internet, where it is

the intention to design low-level standards allowing developers to access data through standardised

API. A similar situation, for example, can be found with geospatial data, where access is solved

through OGC standards. Also questions like security are mainly solved outside the agri-food

community. It is important to follow such initiatives, and eventually participate in them if progress is

not fast enough or solutions tend not to take agri-food specifics into account. In two specific

agricultural areas further development is necessary inside of the agri-food community:

o ISOBUS for access to information to agriculture machinery;

o Special agriculture sensors or RFID activities.

More important seems to be the standardisation efforts at the information level. This focuses on

protocols (Web services), API and data models for exchange of information in different areas such as

traceability, precision farming, livestock transport, welfare regulations, subsidies systems (for

example LPIS), weather information, market information, logistic information. It seems that for the

coming years the key focus will be in this area. The work could be partly related to activities such as

agroXML.

With the expansion of Web-based technologies, more standardisation efforts will be necessary at the

knowledge level. Access to knowledge is the goal of many information systems. It is necessary to

build knowledge based tools, which will help user in orientation and right decision. That could be

ontologies, RDF schemas for linked open data, thesauri or vocabularies. Such activities already

exist, for example under FAO (AgroVoc thesaurus) and different tools of knowledge management.

This effort is partly covered by a new project agINFRA.

After AgriXchange….

In standardisation, it is important to transfer the standard to the community. It is necessary to support

communication between researchers, politicians, industry and also final users. It is necessary to

transfer all knowledge to the users. It is important that the requirements for standards are not

defined only by the government or by large industry. Standards have to cover needs of users like

farmers and regional and local ICT developers. Involvement of these communities is crucial. At the

other side, the food market is international and for example information about food traceability has to

be shared worldwide. It is important in this area to develop and support global standards.

It is not realistic to establish a new organization for such standardisation processes, although more

coordination at EU level seems attractive. This is not only a question of financing, but it is also a

question of building infrastructure, human resources, etc. For this reason, we recommend to hand

over and continue agriXchange results under the umbrella of an existing organisation. It will increase

the chances for financing of future activities. As an umbrella organisation at EU level, the European

Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture (EFITA) would be most suitable.

Currently, ICT for the agri-food sector is not covered by any policies and also there is no direct

support for such activities. The topic is addressed by different Directorate Generals (DGs), but no DG

covers this issue fully. It is important to include these topics as part of the European priorities and

also as part of Horizon 2020. Collaboration between member states could be strengthened by the

ERAnet ICT-Agri. It is important to have a strong representative community, which will provide the

Final SRA 11

necessary lobbying. On the worldwide level, part of these activities is covered by FAO. But there are

gaps between FAO and the worldwide community. It is necessary to improve cooperation. The

International Network for Information Technology in Agriculture (INFITA) could play an important role

here.

RTD results and results of standardisation have to be transferred into practice to local and regional

users. In the future, the agINFRA project could be of help. The project has an objective to build

infrastructure for sharing agriculture information. It is necessary to support open innovation initiatives

in rural regions. It would be good to introduce concept of “Smart Rural Regions” similar to Smart

Cities.

12 Final SRA

Synthetic Summary

The agriXchange Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) goes beyond the general scope of the

agriXchange initiative. It is focused not only on standardisation of data exchange but also on the

definition of research priorities for ICT in the agri-food sector and for future sustainability of ICT

agriculture research and standardisation.

The document was prepared in two stages. Project team studies and available materials were the

basis for the first stage. The second stage involved community contribution, which comprised the

following three ways of updating the document:

• Publishing the draft agriXchange SRA on the project agriXchange platform for public

discussion.

• In situ discussion about the draft agriXchange SRA on SmartAgriMatics 2012 conference in

Paris;

• Virtual discussion about the draft agriXchange SRA on Linked-In network. The challenges

and recommendations were discussed by an international community. A number of

comments and contributions came from social networks. In effect, this was the most

valuable source of comments.

The last update of the document was done on the basis of comments and discussions within the

agriXchange team. Those comments led to this final version of the document.

The document is divided into ten parts.

The first part, the introduction, defines the background and scope, main problems, objectives and

approach and outline for the rest of the document.

The second part introduces basic problems of agriculture interoperability, the problems of

management and interoperability of data, information and knowledge in agriculture.

The third part gives a short overview of current standardisation initiatives, which are relevant to the

problems of agriXchange. It also describes current agriXchange activities in the area of

standardisation. The agriXchange work was focused on two topics:

• the structure of the framework model serves information on sharing and harmonisation

development for data exchange, and

• the implementation of the practical model tool (aXTool) in the agriXchange platform to

be user-friendly.

The fourth part gives an overview of previous activities. We analysed only those projects and

documents that were focused on a vision of future ICT for agri-food or eventually ICT for rural

development. The analyses conclude that the progress in the deployment of ICT infrastructure for

(standardised) data exchange in Europe is changing very fast and changes from one year to the

other. In principle, a large part of the population in Europe has the possibility to access broadband

or has permanent access to the Internet (the bandwidth is usually lower for rural regions than for

cities). This potential access to the Internet is not really used: real use of Internet access is lower in

rural regions and the uptake of new solutions into practice and also research in agri-food and rural

applications is slower than the deployment of the general infrastructure. In many cases application

priorities are the same as 10 years ago. The big problem is the data, information and knowledge

exchange and interoperability.

Final SRA 13

• From the overview we come to the following conclusions, important for building of

agriXchange SRA: The uptake of new ICT interoperable technologies in primary production,

which will be accepted by farming sector

• The analysis of documents from the last decade demonstrates that there is low sustainability

of ICT for agri-food research and little exchange of experiences among projects. Often

similar analyses with similar results are provided, but overall progress is slow. To overcome

this problem, it is necessary to support a long-term suitability of ICT research and to support

a long-time vision for RTD development in the agri-food sector.

• Better and faster implementation of RTD results of ICT in practice with appropriate business

model thinking.

• A strong professional (international) organisation which will unify different efforts of different

ICT research and development groups, but which will be also able to protect interests of

communities. The candidate for such an organisation could be the European Federation for

Information Technology in Agriculture, Food and the Environment (EFITA,) but it will be

necessary to change its organisational structure.

• It is important to renew dialogues for politicians to focus on ICT for rural regions as part of

Horizon 2020 activities. It is not only important to support standardisation awareness, but

also deployment of new solutions necessary for rural regions. Currently, ICT for agri-food is

not covered on a large scale, neither in DG Connect research nor in KBBE calls.

• Due to the global character of agriculture and food production and also because agriculture

production influences and is influenced by the environment, it is important to improve

dialogue and transfer of ICT knowledge between developed and developing countries.

Chapter five is focused on the latest ICT research trends, covering three aspects:

• Future Internet;

• Open Source Software;

• Open Data.

This chapter discusses the relation between Future Internet (mainly cloud computing) and Open

Source Software, which could be in some way considered as competitive approaches, but at the

same time they could be in synergy. There are two important aspects:

1. Interoperability and service-oriented architecture, which allows easy replacement of one



2. Support for large-scale use of Open Sources by Future Internet. Currently, Open Source

generates business for companies which customise solutions into final applications. Such

web-based solutions could generate profit for SMEs developers.

The last part of the analysis is focused on Open Data and Linked Data. Open data initiatives and

Public Sector Information are also considered important for the agri-food sector. Until now, mainly

farmers have been limited by restricted access to data, information and knowledge. Linked Data

introduces new semantic principles into Web resources and could be useful to the agri-food sector.

Chapters 2 to 5 are mainly analytical: the focus of these chapters was on collecting and analysis of

available resources. The next chapters are synthetic, focused on building a new vision.

Chapter 6 is focused on future challenges. There are two types of challenges

• Political-organisational challenges

• Technological, innovation and research challenges

14 Final SRA

The following flow chart explains how both types of challenges affect the SRA (Figure 2)

Figure 2 Challenges that affect the SRA

The following political and organisational challenges have been defined

The analysis in Chapter 4 in particular helps define the next political and organisational challenges

• To improve the representation of ICT agriculture specialists and users in European activities

• To include ICT and knowledge management for agri-food and rural communities generally

as a vital part of the ICT policies and initiatives

• To support a better transfer of RTD results and innovation to the everyday life of farmers,

food industry and other rural communities

• To accelerate bottom-up activities as a driver for local and regional development

• To support discussion and transfer of knowledge between developed and developing

countries

And the following technological, innovation and research challenges

• To find a better balance between food safety and security, energy production and

environmentally and socially sound production

• To support better adoption of agriculture on climatic changes

• To make rural regions an attractive place to live, invest and work, promoting knowledge and

innovation for growth and creating more and better jobs

• To support the farming community and rural education, training and awareness building in

ICT

• To build new ICT models for sharing and use of knowledge by the agri-food community and

in rural regions in general.

Chapter 7 defines the following research priorities for the Applications domain:







Final SRA 15

• A new generation of applications supporting better and more effective management of



• An ICT application supporting adoption of farming practices adapted to climatic changes.

• An ICT application supporting energy efficiency on farm level.

• An ICT application supporting rural development and local businesses.

• An ICT application for education, training and awareness raising.


Table 1 shows relation of these research priorities with the challenges.

The development of knowledge-based systems for the farming sector has to be supported by ICT

focusing on the areas as defined in:

Table 1 Relation matrix between Challenges and Applications research Domain

(Green indicates that some applications are the answer to a concrete challenge)

Chapter 8 defines priorities for ICT research domains. This list of domains was defined based on the

needs from application areas, but also based on the analysis of results from chapters 2, 3, 4 and 5.

The future development has to be supported by ICT focusing on:

• Future Internet and Internet-based applications such as sensor technology, cloud

computing and machine-to-machine communication.

• Mobile applications.

• Improving of positioning systems.

• Service Oriented Architecture.

• Methods of knowledge management.

• Semantic models, multilingualism, vocabularies and automatic translation.

• New Earth observation methods.

• Management and accessibility of geospatial information.

• Open data access.

• Open Source development.

• New modelling.

• The power of social networks and social media.

16 Final SRA

• New e-educational and training methods.

The relation between agri-food related applications and ICT research topics is described in Table 2.

Table 2 Dependency matrix between Applications domain and ICT development priorities

(The violet colour indicates that for a concrete application a specific technology is required)

Chapter nine provides recommendations for a necessary future standardisation effort related to ICT

and agriculture applications priorities. The provided analysis stresses the following important facts:

• On the level of data standardisation, the agri-food community will mainly be the consumer of

standards coming from other domains or activities. For example activities related to Future

Internet, where it is the intention to design low-level standards allowing developers to access

data through standardised API. A similar situation, for example, can be found with geospatial

data, where access is solved through OGC standards. Also questions like security are

mainly solved outside of the agri-food community. It is important to follow this initiative, and

eventually participate in other initiatives including the SmartAgrifood project in Future

Internet. There are two areas where further development is necessary inside of the

community:



• More important seems to be the effort on an information level. In accordance with work

which was provided in WP4, it is necessary to be focused on protocols (Web services), API

and data models for exchange of information in different areas such as traceability, precision

farming, live transport, welfare regulations, subsidies systems (for example LPIS), weather

information, market information, logistic information. It seems that for the next period the key

focus will be in this area. The work could be partly related to activities such as agroXML.

• In the future with the expansion of Web-based technologies, more effort will be necessary in

the area of knowledge level. Access to knowledge is the goal of many information systems.

It is necessary to build knowledge based tools, which will help user in orientation and right

Application Research domain

ICT Research domain Collaborative environments and

trusted sharing of knowledge and

supporting innovations in agri-food

and rural areas, especially supporting

food quality and security

New (ICT) structures to serve

sustainable animal farming, especially

regarding animal and human health

and animal welfare

ICT applications for the complete

traceability of production, products

and services throughout a networked

value chain including logistics

supporting better and more effective

management of sustainable

agriculture production and decision

making in agriculture ICT applications

supporting the management of natural

ICT application supporting adoption

of farming practices adapted to

climatic changes

ICT application supporting energy

efficiency on farm level

ICT application supporting rural

development and local businesses

ICT application for education, training

and awareness rising

ICT applications reducing

administrative burdens in rural areas

Future Internet

and Internet of

Things

including

sensor

technology,

cloud

computing and

machine to

machine

communication

Open Source

development

New modelling

methods

Mobile

applications

Improving of

positioning

systems.

Service

Oriented

Architecture

Methods of

knowledge

management

Semantic

models,

multilingualism,

vocabularies

and automatic

translation

The power of

social networks

and social

media

New e-

educational

methods.

New earth

observation

methods

Management

and

accessibility of

geospatial

information

Open data

access.

Final SRA 17

decision. It could be ontologies, RDF schemas for open linked data, thesaurus or

vocabularies. Such activities already exist, for example under FAO (AgroVoc thesaurus) and

different tools of knowledge management. This effort is partly covered by the new project

agINFRA.

Chapter 10 defines long-term strategic goals for sustainability of agriXchange. This strategy follows

the political organisational challenges defined in Chapter 6 for the following reasons:

• In any area there are two types of standardisation efforts:

o Community or industry driven effort. For these it is necessary to have structure

inside the community, which will take leadership in this area.

o Politically driven standardisation – in the agri-food area it could include standards

for animals welfare, food security etc. For implementation in practice, it is necessary

to support related policy. Also, it is good for policy makers to have partners on the

community level.

• For any standard it is important to transfer it to the community. It is necessary to support

communication between researchers, politicians, industry and also final users. It is

necessary to transfer all knowledge to the users.

• It is important that the requirements for standards are not defined only by politicians or by

large industry. Standards have to cover needs of users like farmers and regional and local

IST developers. Involvement of these communities is crucial.

• The food market is international and for example information about food traceability has to

be shared worldwide. It is important in this area to support standards worldwide.

As a reaction on single challenges there are the following recommendations:

• It is necessary to have a better coordination of different activities related to ICT for

agriculture, but also related to standardisation. On the basis of the performed analysis, it

seems not realistic to establish a new platform initiative. It is not only a question of financing,

but it is also a question of building infrastructure, human resources, etc. For this reason, the

project team recommends to move agriXchange under the umbrella of an existing

organisation. It will increase the chances for financing of future activities. As an umbrella

organisation, the European Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture (EFITA)

would be most suitable. The advantage to have a European body, representing the ICT Agri-

food sector, which could be an interesting partner for the European Commission and other

policy actors.., in particular for Initiatives such as the European Innovation Partnership.

• Currently ICT for agri-food sector is not covered by any policies and also there is no direct

support for such activities. The topic is addressed by different Directorate Generals (DGs),

but no DG covers this issue fully. It is important to include these topics as part of the

European priorities and also as part of Horizon 2020. From this reason, it is important to

have strong representative of a community, which will provide the necessary lobbing. On the

worldwide level, part of these activities is covered by FAO. But there are gaps between FAO

and the worldwide community. It is necessary to improve cooperation.

• Any RTD results and also results of standardisation have to be transferred into practice to

local and regional users. In the future, the agINFRA project could be of help. The project has

an objective to build infrastructure for sharing agriculture information.

• It is necessary to support open innovation initiatives in rural regions. It will be good to

introduce concept of “Smart Rural Regions” similar to Smart Cities.

18 Final SRA

• It is necessary to support standardisation cooperation also worldwide. FAO or the

International Network for Information Technology in Agriculture (INFITA) could play an

important role.

Final SRA 19

1 Introduction1.1 Background and scope

The objective of this report is to provide a Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) which reflects the

business demands for use of ICT and exchange of agriculture data, information and knowledge

supported by current standardisation, but also by future research in ICT for the agri-food industry. It

reflects the needs of the agriculture business. The focus of the SRA is on identifying major ICT

challenges related to the use of ICT and data, information, knowledge and standards in agriculture

and the agri-food industry sector. The agenda defines not only the necessary ICT standards, but also

in a broader view the Research and Technology Development (RTD) areas which will be selected as

key priorities to achieve the challenges identified. The wide deployment of data, information and

knowledge management, which will include ICT technologies, data, information and standards,

exchange of information and use of ICT standards specifically oriented to the agri-food industry, will

support the transformation of agriculture production into a competitive, sustainable and dynamic

Knowledge-Based Bio-Economy (KBBE) as well as facilitate the participation and ultimately the

complete integration of agricultural production into the Knowledge Society. The SRA is mainly

focused on the KBBE and ICT programmes within the EU FP7 Research Programme, but it is based

on activities on a regional and cross-regional level as well as within other EU programmes and

initiatives. It is critical to follow the main trends, but also to cooperate with the main industry and ICT

players involved. The definition of the SRA required a deep knowledge of problems of agriculture

data, information and knowledge interoperability, previous activities, existing standardisation

problems, the state of the art in the agri-food ICT area, but also consultations with representatives

from industry, governments, agencies, operators, and agri-food authorities and stakeholders involved

in rural development. The discussions with stakeholders during events such as the GeoFARMatics

conference in Cologne in 2010 or the EFITA congress in Prague 2011 played an important role. The

first version of the SRA was published in May 2012. The current document is presenting the final

version of strategic lines that, after validation of the draft version (mainly provided based on the

Smart AgriMatics conference and the Linked-In social network), will support all domain stakeholders

in the process of implementing a number of specific measures to achieve the stated objectives. This

document is the final version, but it is still open for comments. The goal of this SAR is to stimulate

future discussions. For this reason, the document is published under the Common Creative License

to support its re-use and further exploitation of the collected ideas. The objective of the document is

to stimulate discussion. ICT in agriculture is a very dynamic sector and it requires the continual

updating of ideas. On the other hand, the analysis of previous activities demonstrates that there is a

need for a long-time sustainability of ICT for agri-food research (many previous SRAs and other

strategic documents dispersed without any continuity and also accessibility of previous documents).

1.2 Problem

The agriculture sector is a unique sector due to its strategic importance for both European citizens

(consumers) and the European economy (regional and global), which, ideally, should make the

whole sector a network of interacting organisations. Rural areas are of particular importance with

respect to the agri-food sector and should be specifically addressed within this scope. There is an

increasing tension that has not been experienced in any other sector between the requirements to

20 Final SRA

ensure full food safety as well as sustainability while keeping costs under control. Also it is necessary

to ensure the long-term strategic interests of Europe and worldwide [1], also with regard to food

security and global challenges. To solve the problems of future farming, we need to develop a new

generation of knowledge management, which will help the agri-food sector to adopt to a changing

world. The objective of future knowledge management is to help the agri-food sector to be

competitive in the market in the sense of required products, quality and amount, to be able to react to

changes in the world market, changes in subsidies systems, requirements for environment

protection, but also to be able to react for example to increasing costs of inputs or to climate

changes. The future knowledge management systems have to support not only direct profitability of

the agri-food sector or environment protection, but also activities of individuals and groups, allowing

effective collaboration among groups in the agri-food industry and consumers and wider

communities, especially in the rural domain. Having these considerations in mind, the proposed

vision lays the foundation for meeting ambitious but achievable operational objectives that in the long

run will definitively contribute to fulfil identified needs. The knowledge management represents the

on-going relationship between people, processes and technology systems involved in designing,

capturing and implementing the intellectual infrastructure of an organisation. It encompasses the

necessary changes in management attitudes, organisational behaviour and policy. Knowledge

management should create a value for the customer and increase the profitability of farms. It is clear

from the definition that knowledge management goes one step further than the simple concept of

information systems and data exchange and entails other two factors, people and processes [2]. This

will require better exchange of information, but also the adoption of new scientific and research

results in the agri-food sector.

The discussions on social networks demonstrate the growing importance of bottom-up activities,

collaboration and social media. Open innovation and open data access are important for future rural

development. Such activities as Living Labs could help rural regions in future. For the urban

population there is a growing activity called Smart Cities. It is important to support similar activities for

rural regions - Smart Rural Regions.

1.3 Objectives of study

The objective of the SRA is to identify major challenges related to the use of standards identified in

agriculture and agri-food industry sector. The agenda defines Research and Technology

Development areas which will be selected as key priorities to achieve the challenges identified. The

future wide deployment and use of standards, which will be specifically oriented to the agri-food

industry, will support the transformation of agriculture production into competitive and dynamic

knowledge-based economy, as well as facilitating the participation and ultimately the complete

integration of the EU agriculture production into the Knowledge Society. The SRA is mainly focused

on KBBE and ICT within FP7 and Horizon2020, but also on sets of activities on a regional and

cross.-regional level as well as within other EU programmes and initiatives.

The second objective is to recommend a way for the long-term sustainability of the agriXchange

initiative.

1.4 Approach and outline

The SRA is not built from scratch. There are two main sources of ideas that are used and extended

in the agriXchange SRA. The first source are the results of previous activities. There were many

activities trying to define the future vision or the ICT and knowledge management in agriculture and

in a broader sense also in rural development. In many cases the project results disappeared together

Final SRA 21

with the project itself. The first part of our work was a deep analysis of previous work and to see what

was done, what was already overcome and what has been valid until now.

The second information sources were the results from WP2, WP3 and WP4 of agriXchange. The

analyses are used as an input and recommendation for the SRA. As was already stressed, the SRA

not only focuses on the standardisation process but also on defining priorities for future research.

This is done because future research priorities will define necessary standardisation tasks in ICT for

the agri-food sector.

A part of the recommendation is also a suggestion for the long-term sustainability of the agriXchange

initiative. The report is outlined as follows:

• Chapter 2 gives an introduction to the problem of standardisation of ICT in agriculture

• Chapter 3 gives a short overview of current standardisation initiatives relevant to

agriXchange

• Chapter 4 analyses previous projects and results of other WPs of agriXchange.

• Chapter 5 focuses on current ICT trends and their potential implementation in the agri-food

sector

• Chapter 6 defines future research and political challenges for ICT in agri-food sector.

• Chapter 7 focuses on defining future research priorities in ICT applications for agri-food

sector.

• Chapter 8 defines ICT research priorities given by needs of applications.

• Chapter 9 answers the question how research priorities in ICT for agriculture will generate

new requirements for standardisation.

• Chapter 10 focuses on agriXchange long-term sustainability and on the definition of political

priorities for the next period.

The final version was prepared on the basis of discussions about the draft SRA during the AgriMatics

2012 conference in Paris and by mainly using moderated discussions on Linked-In and comments

from the project partners. The results of all the discussions were used for finalising the SRA.

22 Final SRA

2 ICT for Agriculture

Interoperability2.1 Data, information and knowledge

For every discussion about knowledge or information management it is important to better

understand basic terms such as data, information and knowledge. It is also important to understand

the problems of interoperability and standardisation. For a better explanation we will use the Data-

Information-Knowledge-Wisdom hierarchy (Figure 3).

• Data: as symbols;

• Information: data that are processed to be

useful; provides answers to "who", "what", "where",

and "when" questions;

• Knowledge: application of data and

information; answers "how" questions;

• Wisdom: evaluated understanding.

Figure 3 The Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom hierarchy of Ackoff [3]

A further elaboration of Ackoff's definitions follows:

• Data... data is raw. It simply exists and has no significance beyond its existence (in

and of itself). It can exist in any form, usable or not. It does not have meaning of

itself. In computer parlance, a spreadsheet generally starts out by holding data

• Information... information is data that has been given meaning by way of relational

connection. This "meaning" can be useful, but does not have to be. In computer

parlance, a relational database makes information from the data stored within it.

• Knowledge... knowledge is the appropriate collection of information, such that it's

intent is to be useful. Knowledge is a deterministic process.

• Wisdom... wisdom is an extrapolative and non-deterministic, non-probabilistic

process. It calls upon all the previous levels of consciousness, and specifically upon

special types of human programming (moral, ethical codes, etc.). It beckons to give

us understanding about which there has previously been no understanding, and in

doing so, goes far beyond understanding itself. It is the essence of philosophical

probing.” [4]

For the future analysis of agriXchange, important are the first three terms data, information and

knowledge, which define three levels related to the management of farms. The wisdom could be

understood as part of decision processes.

Final SRA 23

We have defined three levels of management:

• Data Management;

• Information Management;

• Knowledge management.

Data management includes

• Data governance;

• Data Architecture, Analysis and Design;

• Database Management;

• Data Security Management;

• Data Quality Management;

• Metadata Management;

• Document, Record and Content Management;

• Reference and Master Data Management.

Information management includes

• Records management;

• Can be stored, catalogued, organised;

• Align with corporate goals and strategies;

• Set up a database;

• Use for day-to-day optimum decision-making;

• Aims for efficiency;

• Data with a purpose.

Knowledge management includes

• A framework for designing an organisation’s goals, structures, and processes to add value;

• Collect, disseminate, use of information;

• Align with corporate goals and strategies;

• Focus on cultivating, sharing, and strategising;

• Connecting people to gain a competitive advantage;

• Information with a purpose.

It is clear that we have to look at the problem of agriculture standardisation from different angles. It is

evident that the focus on standardisation only on data level is too narrow and will not be able to cover

the needs of the agri-food sector. In the future, the main effort has to be on the level of

standardisation of information and knowledge.

2.2 Standardisation need for the agriculture sector

Future Farm deliverable 3.1[5] says that a farmer needs to manage a lot of information to make

economically and environmentally sound decisions. Such a process is very labour intensive because

most parts have to be executed manually. The farm activities include the monitoring field operations,

managing the finances and applying for subsidies, depending on different software applications.

Farmers need to use different tools to manage monitoring and data acquisition on�line in the field.

They need to analyse information related to subsidies, and to communicate with tax offices, product

resellers etc. These needs are portrayed in Figure 4.

24 Final SRA

Figure 4 Relationship between farm management and its environment (from Sörensen et al. [6])

Any decision on farm level requires intensive data, information and knowledge flows. It requires

many different tools. Interoperability plays an important role.

2.3 Interoperability on farm level

Effective use of ICT management tools, decision support, accounting systems, tools for precision

farming etc. require intensive sharing of all:

• Data – for example from machinery, loggers etc.;

• Information – exchange of information with public bodies, consumers etc.;

• Knowledge – it is important for farm management systems to be able to understand the

content of information from different external resources.

Interoperability on the farm level cannot be reduced to simple data structures and protocols, but that

has to be fully understood. Agriculture standardisation is a broad subject that overlaps different other

standardisation efforts. The task for the agriXchange initiative is to decide where to share standards

from other initiatives and where to focus the effort of our own standardisation activities.

For standardisation, it is important to know what we have to standardise and why. We need to

analyse the main challenges of ICT for agriculture. These challenges will be used later on to define

what we have to standardise. It is also important to follow the main research trends, because in some

cases future technologies could overcome some standardisation problems.

Final SRA 25

3 StandardisationThis chapter gives a brief overview of existing standardisation efforts that are important for

agriXchange. It also describes the results from WP4.

3.1 Current standardisation initiatives

3.1.1 ISO

ISO is the International Organization for Standardization, which develops and publishes international

standards. ISO standards ensure that products and services are safe, reliable and of good quality.

For businesses, they are strategic tools that reduce costs by minimising waste and errors and

increasing productivity. They help companies to access new markets, level the playing field for

developing countries and facilitate free and fair global trade. [7]

3.1.2 W3C

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international community where member organisations,

a full-time staff, and the public work together to develop Web standards. The W3C mission is to lead

the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing protocols and guidelines that ensure the long-

term growth of the Web. Below we discuss important aspects of this mission, all of which further

W3C's vision of One Web. [8]

3.1.3 OASIS

OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) is a not-for-profit

consortium that drives the development, convergence and adoption of open standards for the global

information society. OASIS promotes industry consensus and produces worldwide standards for

security, Cloud computing, SOA, Web services, the Smart Grid, electronic publishing, emergency

management, and other areas. OASIS open standards offer the potential to lower costs, stimulate

innovation, grow global markets, and protect the right of free choice of technology. [9]

3.1.4 OGC

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is an international industry consortium of 478 companies,

government agencies and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly

available interface standards. OGC® Standards support interoperable solutions that "geo-enable" the

Web, wireless and location-based services and mainstream IT. The standards empower technology

developers to make complex spatial information and services accessible and useful with all kinds of

applications. [10]

3.1.5 IEEE

IEEE is the world's largest professional association dedicated to advancing technological innovation

and excellence for the benefit of humanity. IEEE and its members inspire a global community

through IEEE's highly cited publications, conferences, technology standards, and professional and

educational activities. IEEE, pronounced "Eye-triple-E," stands for the Institute of Electrical and

Electronics Engineers. The association is chartered under this name and it is the full legal name. [11]

26 Final SRA

3.1.6 VDMA – ISOBUS

ISOBUS is managed by the ISOBUS group in VDMA. The VDMA (VerbandDeutscherMaschinen-

und Anlagenbau - German Engineering Federation) is a network of around 3,000 engineering

industry companies in Europe and 400 industry experts.

The ISOBUS standard specifies a serial data network for control and communications on forestry or

agricultural tractors. It consists of several parts: General standard for mobile data communication,

Physical layer, Data link layer, Network layer, Network management, Virtual terminal, Implement

messages applications layer, Power train messages, Tractor ECU, Task controller and management

information system data interchange, Mobile data element dictionary, Diagnostic, File Server. The

work for further parts is ongoing. It is currently ISO standard ISO 11783. [12]

3.1.7 agroXML

agroXML is a standard facilitating data exchange in agriculture and other sectors in contact with

agriculture. agroXML is developed by the KTBL and partners among makers of agricultural software

systems, machinery companies and service providers. agroXML is based on the internationally

standardised eXtensible Markup Language (XML). It consists of schemas complemented by content

lists. The schema is designed in a modular way. The English language is used for data type and

element names and the documentation. Essential modules with definitions concerning the farm and

plant production are currently available, modules for livestock farming are in development. [13]

3.1.8 INSPIRE

In Europe a major recent development has been the entering in force of the INSPIRE Directive in

May 2007, establishing an infrastructure for spatial information in Europe to support Community

environmental policies, and policies or activities which may have an impact on the environment.

INSPIRE is based on the infrastructures for spatial information established and operated by the 27

Member States of the European Union. The Directive addresses 34 spatial data themes needed for

environmental applications, with key components specified through technical implementing rules.

This makes INSPIRE a unique example of a legislative “regional” approach. [14]

3.2 agriXchange results

A part of the agriXchange work in WP4 agriXchange team focused on the basic design of the generic

integration framework for data, information and knowledge exchange harmonisation and

interoperability based on selected use cases. The project worked with two levels of use case

descriptions.

• The first is a “wide scope” use case description, covering a whole domain-specific procedure

fulfilling the user needs, for example fertilising procedures from planning to execution,

consisting of a chain of processes, actors and data-exchange transactions.

• The “narrow scope” description serves as a meta-data model of the interface, where the

context of the data transaction of that specific interface is briefly described.

The agriXchange WP4 effort focused on two aspects:

• the structure of the framework model serves information sharing and harmonisation

development of the data exchange, and

• the implementation of the practical model tool (aXTool) in the agriXchange platform has to

be user-friendly.

Final SRA 27

The agriXchange Reference Framework design contains functionalities such as search, contribute,

discussion and evaluation by user experience, and also a mechanism for quality management. The

design serves different interest groups with their focus on either wide-scope use cases or narrow-

scoped interface solutions, and assists in interactions between the scopes [15].

From the user point of view, the agriXchange Reference Framework should serve four main

functions: searching for existing solutions interlinked with any open (standardised) interface,

contributing (to) existing solutions, discussion and evaluation of solutions. The Reference Framework

tool should provide information in details that suit user’s demand in different phases of a system

development process.

Classification of contributed information according to the agriXchange Reference Information Model

(aXRIM) is a backbone for the generic integration framework and provides the foundation for the

relevant functionalities of the aXTool, like relevant and efficient search functions. The main classes of

aXRIM are Process, Actors, Communication protocol and Data. The aXRIM includes elements which

concern Technical architecture and Technical communication infrastructure (Class: Communication

protocol) and Organisational embedding (Class: Actors).

Users can be classified as developers, modellers and business users depending on the scope of

their interest. The users can represent specific groups of narrow interest areas or wider themes.

When contributing, users follow a certain work flow through which the aXTool gives guidance. The

quality maintenance requires the contributors to identify their name, the organisation and community

they represent, and the contact information. Also, collected user experiences of already existing

solutions that are also shared by other contributors, are utilised to describe the quality of a certain

solution [16].

Wide-scope use case descriptions serve the development and optimisation of farming, food logistics

and trading systems which capture several sub-systems, actors and stakeholders. Narrow-scope

interfaces focus on single data exchange interfaces and actors and processes around them, and the

level of information detail is higher, including technical details, standards and other implementation

instructions. For this level, one of the key factors in data exchange is the sharing of vocabularies. In

many cases, each data exchange solution has its own specific vocabulary. To increase cost

efficiency in constructing an interoperable system, the harmonising of vocabularies is essential. The

aim of the information modelling of the two use cases is to give a high-level understanding of the

content of the information to be exchanged between the parties or actors involved. Gathering the

data content from different use cases to the agriXchange collection gives a good ground for further

analysis and harmonisation of the vocabulary in the agri-food sector [17].

3.3 Conclusion

Almost all of the described standardisation efforts have some effect on the agri-food sector. Initiatives

such as ISOBUS or agroXML could in future be interconnected with agriXchange initiatives in some

way; the agriXchange community could contribute to some standardisation efforts with requirements

directly from agri-food community and some standards will be simply adopted by the community.

From the work in WP4 it is clear that an important part of future standardisation efforts will be related

to concrete processes, decision making, etc. Standardisation on the level of data exchange is

required (ISOBUS, IEEE standardisation in sensors communication protocols, etc.), but increasingly

also on the level of information exchange and in future also on the level of knowledge (for example

semantic).

28 Final SRA

Another important aspect is that current standardisation initiatives are publicly driven or driven by

large industries (W3C, OGC, OASIS). For ICT in the agri-food sector it is important to support the

participation of Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in standardisation processes or minimally

support free access of SMEs to existing standards. The participation of SMEs in the development of

agri-food applications is very high, but the participation of SMEs in standardisation initiatives is very

low (SMEs have no capacity to participate in these activities and to contribute to standards). This

could lead to situations where current standards do not fit the needs of agri-food ICT well. It is

necessary to find the way (granting, networking activities) to support participation of SMEs in

standardisation activities.

Final SRA 29

4 Overview of past

activitiesICT for agriculture, food, environment and rural development is not a new issue. There were many

activities and initiatives during the last years. New research projects very often start from scratch

without taking into account results from previous activities. Therefore, we decided to include this

chapter to show some project results performed mainly during the first decade of the 21st century.

We expect this chapter can provide a good overview of how ideas have changed, what was reached

and where progress can be shown. It is based on an analysis of supporting and coordination actions

and key declarations with a focus on future strategies in the area of ICT for agriculture, food, rural

development and environment. This analysis includes a short overview of the results or

recommendations from the projects and studies and a list of previous declarations: To complete this

study, part of the analysis is taken from WP2 [18]

• Aforo Roadmap

• Rural Wins Recommendation

• Valencia Declaration

• eRural Brussels conference conclusions

• Prague Declaration

• aBard vision

• ami@netfood Strategic Research Agenda

• The vision on the future value chain for 2016 by the Global Commerce Initiative

• Study on Availability of Access to Computer Networks in Rural Areas

• The research agenda of the European Platform for Food for Life

• Future Farms recommendations

• The Research Agenda and the Action Plan by the Technology Platform for Organic Food

and Farming

• The third SCAR Foresight exercise

• Cologne Declaration supported by agriXchange

• Vision, Strategic Research Agenda and Third Implementation Action Plan (2009) of the

European Agriculture Machinery Industry (Subplatform AET of the Technology Platform

MANUFUTURE

• ICT Agri Eranet

• agriXchange analysis of data exchange in agriculture in the EU27 & Switzerland

This chapter is prepared as an overview and a review of existing outputs and publications from the

above mentioned projects.

4.1 Aforo

The objective of the AFORO [19] project (running in 2002 and 2003) was to provide a vision and

work plan to implement future RTD trends for the transformation of agri-food industries into digital

enterprises. The AFORO consortium split the agri-food domain into several more "manageable"

sectors. Each of them had its own roadmap. The selected sectors were:

(a) primary sources,

30 Final SRA

(b) processed food products,

(c) beverages

(d) additives, conservatives & flavours.

For every sector the main objectives were:

• to define business needs,

• to identify the main constraints to be taken into account,

• to define a technology independent roadmap based on business demands.

The AFORO methodology defined an approach to how the business needs of the agri-food domain

can be established in an ordered way. The process was divided into the following steps:

• data gathering,

• ascertaining of current and future objectives,

• analysis of these objectives,

• listing of key drivers [19].

Figure 5 The AFORO road mapping methodology

The AFORO project defined a roadmapping methodology based on the description of the situation As

is and defining the strategic vision To be (see Figure 5). The important output from the AFORO

roadmap is a consensus of business needs. The following business needs were recognised by

AFORO [20].

• To support food traceability and safety over the whole European market chain.

• To implement interoperability technologies enabling networked organisations and forming a

Single Food European Market.

(A) AS-IS Situation

Present State

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(A) AS-IS Situation

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(B) To-Be Situation

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Final SRA 31

• To develop market knowledge supporting innovative value added products, processes and

business strategies.

• To design and develop interoperability tools for European logistic and services.

• To design a European Agri-food Information System including materials, technologies, and

results of RTD activities.

• To support the transformation of agri-food business into an effective collaborative

organisation.

For every issue the situation As is was analysed and the roadmap To be was defined. For detailed

recommendations, see [20].

4.2 Rural Wins

The objective of Rural Wins [21] (2002 – 2003) was to build a strategic RTD roadmap developing an

information and communications technologies’ vision to ensure the economically and technically

feasible deployment of information and communication solutions for rural areas including also

maritime regions and islands.

The project provided an analysis of:

• the trends in technology development,

• the needed equipment,

• the deployment of services.

Different scenarios of joint public and private initiatives and business models were analysed to

reduce the discriminatory gap that nowadays exists between rural and urban areas with regard to

broadband accessibility and applications’ deployment. Rural Wins use the following classification of

rural areas (based on typology of DG Region)

1. Integrated rural areas - territories with a growing population, an employment basis in the

secondary and tertiary sectors, but with farming remaining an important land use. The

environmental, social and cultural heritage of some of these areas, relatively close to big

cities, may be under pressure of "urbanisation". The rural character of some of these areas

is at risk of becoming predominantly suburban.

2. Intermediate rural areas - relatively distant from urban centres, with a mixture of primary and

secondary sectors; in many countries larger scale farming operations can be found.

3. Remote rural areas - areas with the lowest population densities, the lowest incomes and an

older population. These areas depend heavily on agricultural or fishing employment and

generally provide the least adequate basic services

For all three types of rural areas, the barriers that need to be addressed by Broadband ICTs are

identified as:

• Distance barriers - access to administrative and governmental services and structures

(taxes, subsidies etc.).

• Economic barriers - access to wider business and labour markets (suppliers, customers,

opportunities).

• Social barriers of rural inhabitants to information, education & training facilities, health, social

services etc.

32 Final SRA

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• Information barriers – currently the amenities of many rural areas are "invisible" to the

"outside world" (inhabitants of other areas, urban centres or citizens of other states - rural

tourism, local products etc.).

Based on the analysis of socio-economic and technology trends, the project concluded that for Rural

Broadband access the following is needed:

• Public/Private Partnerships;

• New access technologies.

The project developed a strategic roadmap template that provides a simple, coherent and complete

framework to describe the ICT requirements and issues for rural and maritime areas (Figure 6).

Figure 6 Framework of the Rural Wins project to describe ICT requirements and issues for rural

and maritime areas.

The framework consists of 4 dimensions:

1. Vision/Policy,

2. Awareness,

3. Technology/Infrastructure

4. Services/Applications

These were identified for each of the Rural Wins’ (a) Integrated, (b) Intermediate & (c) Remote types

of rural and maritime areas.

Using this framework, the following concrete scenarios are identified for each type of rural area:

• Integrated areas

o ICT needs – similar to urban;

o Recommended – “standard” fibre/wired/mobile/WLAN;

o Objectives – full parity and use with urban areas;

Final SRA 33

o Implementation – commercial;

• Intermediate areas

o ICT needs – distributed “economies of scope”;

o Recommended – some fibre/wire/mobile/WLAN to towns, satellite/WLAN elsewhere;

o Objectives – competitive SMEs & access by all to all services;

o Implementation – public/private partnerships;

• Remote areas

o ICT needs – part of regional economic, social & cultural development;

o Recommended – satellite/WLAN - new access approaches are required;

o Objectives – ubiquitous fixed & mobile services to overcome barriers;

o Implementation – public funding, public/private & community partnerships.

The use of bi-directional broadband satellite links and local/community owned and operated wireless

LANS (particularly Meshs of Wi-Fi (802.11a/b) wireless cells) are identified as being particularly

relevant eRural access technologies for remote rural areas.

Rural Wins promotes “eRural” policy. The eRural Integrated project (eRural IP) has to adopt an

integrated and multidisciplinary approach across the whole value chain from technology to services

and awareness that will cover all RT&D to eliminate the Urban/Rural Digital Divide. [22]

4.3 Valencia Declaration

The Valencia Declaration was the output of the European Conference “Information Society as Key

Enabler for Rural Development” organised in Valencia, on 3 and 4 February 2003. The Valencia

Declaration addressed the following issues [23]:

• INFRASTRUCTURES AND SERVICES - telecommunications infrastructures must provide

the same level of information transmission and of technology and knowledge transfer. Due

to low population density and weak economic activity in rural areas, it is necessary to design

an optimal convergence model to deploy broadband telecommunications networks. Public

administration has to support the deployment of such an infrastructure, offering a strategic

framework of cooperation and reinforcing the process of telecommunications liberalisation.

Member States should address communications infrastructures and their contents in rural

areas as a strategic priority. This will require implementation of European Authorities'

suggestions regarding the development of information society national and regional plans,

through the development of infrastructures (broadband) as well as services. With regards to

services to citizens, it must be taken into account that one of the reasons for the

depopulation of rural areas is that urban areas provide services to which rural population has

no access. The use of ICT could be the key to overcome this situation. The following is

already available but needs to be enhanced: direct access to administrations (e-

Government), particularly the remote delivery of traditional public services, such as health

(e-health), social assistance, education and lifelong learning (e-learning).

• TRADITIONAL SECTORS AND NEW BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES – it is necessary to use

ICT to gain major benefits through becoming a part of the information society. With regards

to the traditional sectors in rural areas (agriculture, livestock, fishing, forestry and food

industries) it is worth mentioning the following benefits:

34 Final SRA

o Concerning food safety and quality: the use of more efficient quality management and

assurance tools as well as training, communication and information applications and

government follow-up models.

o The increase in clearness, transparency and efficiency in agricultural markets as well as

in sector relationships and in relations among different sectors.

o The increase in competitiveness by means of a faster adaptation to new market trends.

o The increase in consumer confidence through the use of tools which enable food

traceability, in a way that they will be able to check food safety and quality and that

throughout the production process, environmental and animal welfare rules have been

respected.

o The use of e-business tools to concentrate offer and to allow producers to increase their

share in the end value of the product.

• KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY FOR ALL - To get rural citizens and companies into the

information society they must participate in the general cultural change process, required by

this new society model. To this end, the first step to be taken is the development of “digital

literacy” initiatives, which will promote the day-to-day use of computers and the Internet. ICT

usage levels in companies and homes vary between countries, regions and even counties,

but are always significantly lower in rural compared to urban areas. However, it is worth

bearing in mind that rural areas are very diverse one from another and show varying levels

of socio-economic development. Another factor which must not be disregarded is language.

The respect for European multilingual diversity demands actions which contemplate this

reality. Overcoming the psychological resistance to technological change must not be

underestimated, and will require awareness, training and capacity-building initiatives, while,

at the same time, the communication interfaces improve their user-centred and user-friendly

character. Moreover, ICT can provide rural inhabitants with cultural and leisure services,

which could help to overcome the “sense of isolation” that is often considered a major cause

for young people to leave rural areas. The creation of virtual communities and the

recreational uses of the Internet can open a window to the world for rural citizens, while

increasing the feeling of belonging to their rural community and identity.

The conclusion of the Valencia Declaration stressed the importance of inviting all public and private

agents to create a new strategic framework of cooperation from which to promote the following:

• the development of telecommunications infrastructures on an equal basis in all European

territories, within the confines of current regulatory legislation;

• the location of new activities in rural areas, as well as the development of value-creation

actions for all businesses and services;

• the formation of active policies by those responsible for public administration at European,

national, regional and local level to ensure appropriate action for the achievement of these

objectives;

• multidisciplinary research (technical and socio-economic) to enable a better understanding

of the fundamental new drivers of the information society and their impact on rural areas;

• the continuity of discussions, to share expertise and best practices, and to facilitate the

progression from a model based on pilot projects to a model that allows successful initiatives

to be widely adopted.

Final SRA 35

4.4 eRural Brussels conference conclusions

As a follow-up of the Valencia conference, the European associations EFITA together with the Czech

Centre of Strategic Study (CCSS) and with support of DG INFSO of the European Commission

organised one day @rural conference in Brussels. The mission of the @rural conference was to

• facilitate the support for establishing of new European @rural policy,

• exchange information and experience,

• support the development of knowledge in the area of ICT in rural development to enhance

the competitiveness of Europe,

• promote the awareness of ICT in rural areas of Europe.

The Brussels @rural conference joined representatives of national, regional and local governments,

ICT researchers and developers, ICT industry, consultants, specialists for rural development with

representatives of the European Commission.

The @rural conference conclusions stressed that ICT technologies offer the possibility to bring new

activities, services and applications to rural areas, or to enhance those already existing, providing

thus a chance to overcome the barriers and to bridge the widening rural-urban divide. [24].

The development of the information society in rural areas fosters European development and

integration, and increases the competitiveness of European companies. A region needs a solid

foundation for innovation, particularly through an innovation infrastructure with telecommunications

and effective use of knowledge. Communications technology enables increased interconnectivity

between knowledge workers and companies through virtual networking. Shortages of skills and

qualified staff emerge as a major obstacle to innovation. Regions should therefore pay more attention

to lifelong learning to facilitate the adoption of new technologies.

The discussed @rural vision supported the stimulation of services, applications and content including

modern online public services, e-government, e-learning, e-health services and dynamic business

environment. It is important to fund more services, applications and content. Broadband

infrastructure provision depends on the availability of new services to use it. This problem is

particularly acute in rural areas, where competitive infrastructure provision is not emerging as rapidly

as in more central or urban areas. There is thus need for a more pro-active and holistic approach that

harnesses latent demand in rural areas for service provision. Getting affordable broadband to areas

currently regarded as commercially unviable was mentioned as a "challenge". Such an approach

would go a long way to ensure “wider adoption, broader availability and an extension of ICT

applications and services in all economic and public services and in the society as a whole”.

Conclusions mentioned the importance of tacit and specialised knowledge calls for greater mobility of

knowledge workers in rural regions and investment in training and education. Traditional approaches

to the production and use of knowledge have to be adapted to this system view of the innovation

process in a knowledge society for rural regions. To this end, new relationships must be established

between public support organisations, universities and enterprises. In addition to their traditional

roles in education and research, universities should promote the transfer and diffusion of knowledge

and technologies using ICTs, especially towards their local regional business environment.

36 Final SRA

A discussion on the concept of ambient intelligence was a priority. Ambient intelligence provides a

vision of the information society where the emphasis is on greater user-friendliness, more efficient

services support, user-empowerment, and support for human interactions.

To assert the implementation of European Research Area principles into rural regions, it is important

to support research focusing on ICT implementation in rural areas with a critical mass of rural actors,

effort and public-private-partnerships across Europe. The eRural research needs to adopt an

integrated and multidisciplinary approach across the whole value chain from technology to services

and with an awareness that will cover all RTD&D to eliminate the Urban/Rural Digital Divide.

Among the application topics, these main future challenges were mentioned: eGovernment,

environment monitoring and emergency services, food safety, precision farming, controlling of

subsidies, application for food industry, ICT solution for forestry and wood industry, eBusiness,

teleworking, added value chain, eRural tourism, eHealth, eLearning with special needs for remote

areas, the eContent solutions, entertainment, eCulture.

In the field of communication, the following important research topics were recognised: mobile

systems and mainly WLAN, satellite communication, hyperlan, terminals able to work in different

networks.

WEB technologies became an important topic – knowledge management, semantic WEB,

personalised WEB, multilingual WEB, distributed system and interoperability including grid

technologies (mainly semantic and knowledge grid), data and network security, location-based

services, GIS and earth observation, visualisation, image processing simulation, embedded systems.

It was recognised that the current level of development of technologies enables their direct

implementation. Support has to be focused not only on research itself but also on the implementation

of the research results. The relation between RTD support and implementation support (structural

funds) is necessary. The coordination of the activities of DG INFSO, DG Research, DG Agri and DG

Regio on a European level is important.

4.5 Prague Declaration

The Prague Declaration was discussed and published during the European Conference Information

System in Agriculture and Forestry organised in Prague between 15 and 17 May 2006. The

document in the context of a proposed eRural Policy for Europe notes that the current EU Rural

Development Strategy for 2007-2013 represents a welcome opportunity for the creation of a Rural

Knowledge Society.

The participants declared that the overall eRural Policy Strategy should be based on the combination

of a bottom-up and top-down Information and Communications Technology (ICT) development -

always rooted in the cultural heritage, needs and desires of the rural communities. This will involve

ICT decision makers, developers, providers, end users and other stakeholders.

The imperative aspects are the following:

• Policy and Leadership;

• Research and Innovation Related to the Development of a Rural Knowledge Society;

• Technology Access, Applications and Content;

• New Working Environment Business Models;

Final SRA 37

• Social and Human Aspects;

• Environmental Aspects.

The Prague Declaration devotes the following objectives:

• Sustainable eRural policies by those responsible for public administration at European,

national, regional and local level.

• The support and take up of affordable telecommunications infrastructures and services on a

unified basis in all European and other relevant territories.

• The development of value-creating activities supporting sustainable development of new

growth areas in rural communities.

• Technology platforms supporting multidisciplinary and collaborative research and

development on social, economic and environmental aspects to enable fundamental new

drivers of the Rural Knowledge Society. These include assessment and monitoring of their

impact on rural areas.

• Further discussions to share expertise and implementation of best practices. [25], [26]

4.6 aBard vision

A-BARD (2005 – 2006) was a Coordination Action that was researching rural broadband provision

and use. It was targeted to the needs of rural communities. A-BARD addressed questions close to

eRural actors including [27]:

• Rural broadband deployment in rural Europe: issues, models, best practices, affordability

and accessibility?

• Broadband applications and services: what is emerging and can some of those applications

and services directly address the digital divide?

• A-BARD is documenting emerging results and experience to focus and leverage emerging

results from on-going RTD, mobile applications and services deployment and ICT take-up.

The aBard recommendations [26] were based primarily on the assessment of work that was

undertaken in the A-BARD project, and a synthesis of technological possibilities, market

opportunities and the capacity of actors in the regional authorities (to develop and expand ICT based

services and applications). This synthesis takes into account the experience of rural areas as a

whole and of possible development scenarios in the context of wider EU developments. It provided a

perspective on market segmentation in terms of both existing and foreseeable telecommunications

products / services. The A-BARD recommendations were structured into four categories:

• Policy aspects;

• Strategic actions;

• Standalone initiatives;

• Further research & innovation.

These needed to balance top-down and bottom-up approaches. They are summarised as follows:

1. Define an ambitious European Rural Broadband Strategy as an integral part of Sustainable

Rural Development Policy

• Allocate public funding where there is “market failure”;

• In i2010 A European Information Society for growth and employment and FP7,

include specific infrastructure, ICT use and RTD initiatives for rural areas;

2. Stimulate business and technical competition in the Rural Broadband Market

38 Final SRA

• Every user should have a choice of 2 or more broadband access options;

• Stimulate Public Sector Demand aggregation in rural and remote areas;

3. Develop sustainable Connected Rural eCommunities to stimulate demand and broadband

take up

• Enhance Regional Leadership and Local Champions;

• Promote and support awareness (“know what”) and training (“know how”);

4. Provide services and content that rural users want (“killer applications”).

• Local content;

• Entertainment;

• As well as eBusiness, eLearning, eHealth, eGovernment.

4.7 ami@netfood Strategic Research Agenda

The objective of the AMI@Netfood project (2005 -2006) was to support the implementation of the IST

Research Priority and Framework Programme, providing a long-term vision on future trends on

scientific and technology research oriented to the development and application of ambient

intelligence technologies for the agri-food domain. [28]

The Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) outlined activities necessary to support both rural

development and in particular agri-food industries. Concerning agri-food businesses, SRA intended

to provide a path to facilitate the sector to retain their position as world leaders in providing safe and

healthy food products at a reasonable cost. The approach taken was to draw upon ICT to support

businesses and industry in the agri-food sector and transform it into a Collaborative Working

Environment (CWE). In relation with rural development domain, the SRA described the needs of the

sector and proposed measures to implement ICT solutions in rural areas to support their

development. The approach selected not only focused on the development of applications and

infrastructures, but also on a means to promote the diversification of rural activities and the

promotion of new services through the wide adoption of information and communications

technologies [29].

The ami@netfood SRA defined the following challenges:

• Support the European agri-food industry, especially SMEs, to be a worldwide leader in the

supply of high quality and safe food products.

• Increase the level of involvement of consumers in the agri-food value chain by means of the

wide adoption of relevant IC technologies and applications.

• Increase the areas in which European citizens find collaborative working environments

assisted by ICTs by extending them to agri-food industry and rural domain.

• Open new business opportunities for the European ICT industry through development of

new applications and tools to support the European agri-food and rural sector.

• Contribute to trigger the investment in ICT and telecommunications infrastructure by means

of creating new business models in rural areas.

• Make rural Europe a more attractive place to live, invest and work, promoting knowledge

and innovation for growth and creating more and better jobs.

The research and technology development (RTD) domains selected were: [30]

• ICT applications for the complete traceability of products and services throughout a

networked value chain.

Final SRA 39

• Collaborative environments in agri-food and rural areas.

• ICT applications supporting the management of natural resources and rural development

creating value for citizens and businesses.

• Innovative ICT applications in rural areas using broadband infrastructure.

The defined RTD objectives were:

• Developing of interoperable integrated intra- and inter-enterprise applications.

• Improving network collaboration.

• Increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of knowledge sharing.

• Improving the customer orientated business model.

• Supporting the dynamic network management.

4.8 The vision on the future value chain for 2016 by the Global Commerce

Initiative

“The Global Commerce Initiative (CGI) has described the future value chain for 2016, in particular

from a retailer's perspective (GCI 2006). They identify several external driving forces, outside the

direct control of industry, retail and consumer product companies that can be grouped into five areas:

• Economic issues, including the reshuffling of the world’s top economies, the growing gap

between industrialised and developing countries, as well as a focus on social responsibility

among the more developed countries in areas such as fair trading.

• Ecological issues, including water, energy and fuel scarcity and efficiency, sustainability and

waste management.

• Changing demographics, such as the shift in global population, urbanisation and cross-

border migration.

• New technologies, such as virtual reality, quantum computers and information networks,

have the potential to make data, people and objects accessible everywhere and

immediately. Regulatory forces, including extended legislation on health and wellness (for

example, labelling of products) and privacy standards.

At the same time, there will be key industry trends that will affect the future value chain, particularly in

the areas of consumer behaviour, information flow and product flow. In contrast with the external

driving forces, it is possible to shape these internal forces. GCI sees a convergence of these external

forces and industry trends that will drive the evolution of the value chain. From that point of view, they

identify six critical areas of opportunity and growth and improved performance of which information

sharing is the most interesting in the context of this project. About information sharing they write the

following:

Companies must be prepared to share standards-based data free of charge. Sharing

information (such as supply chain events) between trading partners will result in an improved

information flow and, as a consequence, improved collaboration to better serve the consumer. A

resulting collaborative information platform could become the basis for further supply chain solutions,

like demand-driven ordering and collaborative promotion planning.

Thus, GCI envisions an open network, with flexible relationships between network partners, which

implies less hierarchical, linear chain structures. This has consequences for innovation that will be

developed within these open networks, together with changing, sometimes anonymous, partners.

There will be less focus on the products themselves and everything is considered as a service. ICT

could enable information sharing and thus facilitate and improve knowledge-based production

because ICT could help to:

40 Final SRA

• organise and streamline large amounts of data in an effective way (data warehousing)

• make knowledge accessible (e-content) and put it in the right context for application (e.g. by

context-sensitive search)”

• combine knowledge and data in models that are meaningful in the right context (e.g. in

decision support systems)”[31]

4.9 Study on Availability of Access to Computer Networks in Rural Areas

The DG AGRI “Study on Availability of Access to Computer Networks in Rural Areas” provided policy

makers, stakeholders and others with guidance how to maximise the benefits of Information &

Communications Technology (ICT) for growth and jobs in all rural areas of Europe, using the support

of rural development programmes. The study prepared:

• a database of best practices,

• a review of existing policies [32].

On the basis of the analysis a set of recommendations with focus on maximisation of the benefits of

ICT for rural development was prepared:

• A coherent eRural strategy as an integral part of sustainable rural development policy,

focusing on building capacity, even though this often produces “softer” outputs;

• Improvement within the eRural strategy of control and monitoring of ICT indicators, policies

and initiatives including the collection of coherent statistical data;

• Measures which stimulate business and technical competition at different levels of scope

and sophistication within the rural broadband market;

• Developing sustainable connected rural eCommunities to stimulate demand and ICT take-up

– particularly by enhancing regional leadership and local champions to ensure that ‘bottom

up’ projects flourish, and by supporting awareness (“know what”) and training (“know how”);

• Providing services and content that rural users feel are pertinent to them, especially

entertainment and local content, as well as policy priorities such as eBusiness, eLearning,

eHealth and eGovernment services;

• Encouraging initiatives which promote the theme of eCommunity, particularly by way of a

common eRural agenda;

• Adopting a rubric of best practice at the interface between LEADER and those seeking

access to funding;

• Extending investment in broadband infrastructure to all local public sector agencies and

schools;

• Investing and developing the content of local networks;

• Raising the digital e-skills of local businesses and citizens;

• Introduction of an eProcurement process with appropriate safeguards and innovative

proactive online support to fast-track ICT projects in rural areas;

• Explicitly encourage the role of local authorities in laying ducts and then renting them to

operators on an open and non-discriminatory basis, and promoting indoor pre-cabling for all

new buildings in their regions.

Review adds new factors to those identified in previous research:

• A shared sense of lagging behind, which can be stimulated constructively by a local

‘champion’;

• Being spurred on as a consequence of a successful local enterprise;

Final SRA 41

• Being encouraged by the experience or ICT familiarity of others;

• Following a targeted intervention which demonstrably has improved the local quality of life;

• Emotional responses for local, personal reasons;

• Local resistance to an imposed agenda; [32]

4.10 The research agenda of the European Platform for Food for Life

“The European Technology Platform Food for Life has developed a Strategic Research Agenda

(SRA), presenting the priorities for research, communication, training and knowledge transfer in the

food sector for the coming years. Eight research challenges are defined: ensuring that the healthy

choice is the easy choice for consumers, delivering a healthier diet, developing quality food products,

assuring safe foods that consumers can trust, achieving sustainable food production, and managing

the food chain.

However, the platform states that for successful implementation of the programme further

prioritisation is required. This has resulted into three key trusts, involving research that will lead to

improved competitiveness of the agro-food industry by developing new processes, products and

tools that:

• Improve health, well-being and longevity

• Build consumer trust in the food chain, and

• Derive from sustainable and ethical production

The platform Food for Life has given particular attention to the changes that are necessary

throughout Europe to enhance awareness of the impact that research could make on business

efficiency, costs of production and more robust markets. Particular emphasis has been placed on

identifying new, effective measures in communication, training and knowledge transfer activities, both

as a means of ensuring increased consumer trust and understanding of food science and

technology, and in engaging the industry.”[31]

4.11 Future Farm vision

Future Farm was a European project funded by the EU as part of the Seventh Research Framework

Programme. It ran between 2008 and 2010. The main aim of the project was to make a vision of

future arable farming. [33], [34]

The project recognised that the future farming and also future farming knowledge management

system will have to solve many problems, where there will be very different requirements on

production, but also on strategic decisions. There is a list of influences and drivers that will also

influence farming. For example, requirements on food quality and safety in opposition with

requirements as a result of a growing population and on renewable energy production technologies.

The project also highlights that in some cases production on renewable production energy can have

negative influence on the environment. It is important to introduce a new knowledge system that will

help to solve such problems. [35], [36]

By 2030 the importance of biotechnology will grow and research results could be transferred on farm

level. There will be two important trends: requirements on quality of production (high quality food,

vegetables and fruits and also growing demand on special food) and on environmental friendly

production on one side and increasing demand on amount of production on the other side.

The project expects that two main groups of farm will exist in 2030:

• Multifunctional farms.

• Industrial farms with focus on high efficiency and high quality of production.

42 Final SRA

The focus of the multifunctional farm will be on efficient agriculture from an environmental and socio-

economic point of view. But the future of the multifunctional farms will depend on public dialog and

valuation of non-production goods. [37]

The focus of the industrial farm will be to produce enough food and energy in a sustainable way

which meets the consumer’s demands. The quality of food will be important in Europe and it is

expected, that also bio production will be industrialised or will become knowledge intensive. The

expectation is that the industrial farm will be able to exist without subsidies, but it will dependent on

the level of restriction. Science will be the key driver.

In 2030 agriculture will become fully knowledge driven. This will require full adoption of ICT. New

sensors and nanotechnologies will become part of management. ICT facilitated the development of

robotics and automation now used in many industries including the agri-food sector.

On an architectural level of information systems, Future Farm recommends a focus on service

oriented architecture, which could guarantee better connections and interoperability of future

systems. It will influence used GIS systems, a better acceptation of XML standards, but also the

importance of robotics will grow.

For adoption of new technologies, it will be important to focus on two horizontal issues: education

and standardisation. Without educated staff it will not be possible to introduce new knowledge

intensive methods. Standardisation importance will grow for interconnectivity of different levels of

farming knowledge systems. [38], [39].

From the point of view of Future Farming, it is necessary to take into account previous analyses for

suggestion of future knowledge management system functionalities and interrelation. The basic

principles of interrelation could be expressed by the following Figure 7 (coming from [39]).

Figure 7 Exchange of knowledge’s cross different levels of farm management

The image expresses the task for knowledge exchange on different levels. By studying this schema

the following transfer of knowledge could be expected.

Final SRA 43

Climate changes

Macro level

There will be a need for a long-time modelling of influences of global climatic changes on production

in single regions. It is not only a focus on a selection of best crops and their varieties, but also an

analysis of new pests or insects. It will be important to analyse and predict the needs for irrigation. In

the short term, it will be necessary to predict extreme weather events.

Farm level

Prediction model for climatic changes in middle term period (minimally for one season, but better for

three or five seasons) will be an important aspect for changing a strategy on the farm level. There is

no possibility to change arable production during the season. It is better to continually move to a new

production.

Micro level

With changing climatic conditions and with higher probability of extreme local events, the importance

of local monitoring and local weather forecast for a short time period (weeks, a month) will grow. The

use of new sensor technologies and local forecasts systems will play an important role.

Demographic

Macro level

On a macro level it is necessary to forecast the amount of food that will be necessary worldwide and

regionally only. This forecast should enable a middle term perspective from one to five years for

farmers to adapt their production for the next season, but also to provide some changes for the

following years. It is also necessary to provide a short-time forecast of yields during a season so

farmers can optimise their marketing strategy.

Farm level

The seasonal forecast of yield has to be used on farm level for optimising other costs of production

during the season. Middle-term forecasts have to be used for optimisation of farm production

(selection of crops, varieties, crop production focus). Other important aspects could be to decrease

the demand on labour resources by better farm management and logistics, by introducing robots or

by implementing larger ones.

Micro level

The short and middle term information about yield demand will require to use different models of

precision farming. It is not possible to implement one model. This will be necessary to offer different

possibilities, like maximise yield, to keep good yield quality, to minimise costs (to keep soil

sustainable development), to optimise farm profit for future farm development, etc. Robots’

implementation helps to solve problems with time needed for data collection, accuracy, objectivity of

data collection and labour resources.

Energy cost

Macro level

From the development of costs of energy in the last years, it seems that costs of energy are not

predictable. But in the long term we can expect that the cost of energy will grow. There will be a need

44 Final SRA

for prediction of the development of energy costs. The cost of energy will be important from two

different reasons:

• Energy costs will influence costs of production.

• Energy costs will be important for decision.

Farm level

The new knowledge management system on farm level has to be focus on three aspects:

• How to decrease cost consumption, which will be focused on farm management strategy

and improving of logistic.

• To use such machinery that will guarantee lower energy consumption for the same amount

of work.

• Decision about optimal crop composition.

Micro level

Development of energy cost will influence farm management on field level in the following aspects:

• Optimisation of energy consumption using robotic technology.

• Use PF technologies in new direction to decrease energy costs as for example precision

seeding or precision crop protection.

• With potential energy production will be necessary to change the PF models like in previous

case.

New demands on food quality

Macro level

It will be necessary to collect and analyse information of consumer behaviour and consumer

requirements in the direction of food quality or specific diet requirements. It will be necessary to

qualify and also quantify the willingness of the population to pay for certain quality of production or for

certain products. Currently, for major population costs of production are the main criterion. This

criterion is in relation with economic situation of single citizens and globally with economic situation in

countries.

Farm level

The main decision on farm level will be whether it will be better to orient farm production towards

lower amounts of high quality yields at higher prices or towards higher amounts of lower quality

yields at lower prices.

Micro level

The new food quality demands will have on field level the following influences on knowledge

management systems:

• Using new tools of traceability to give evidence about quality of production.

• To use new Precision Farming algorithms to guarantee higher quality of production.

• To use new technologies like robotics to guarantee more precise fertilisation and crop

protection.

Innovative drivers

Macro level

Final SRA 45

From an innovation point of view, it will be necessary to offer information to farmers about new crops

that could be used for concrete climatic or geographic conditions, about their resistance, productivity

etc. It will be important to give farmers access to new possibilities of using different crops for energy

production, different bio products and use of different crops for example in pharmacy.

Farm level

The information about new products has to be used for optimal selection of sorts in relation with

geographical and climatic production. The information about needs for different crops for non-food

production and also their prizes has to be used for decision, which will be orientated towards farm

production.

Micro level

On a micro level, PF methods should be able to adapt for specific requirements of new sorts.

It is important to introduce new methods of traceability, which will guarantee usability of crops for

specific bio production and in pharmacy. New technologies like robotics, will be required to provide

operations more effectively

Development of sustainable agriculture

Macro level

On a macro level, there is a need to guarantee access of farmers to information about possible

payment and the possibility of environmental valuation. It is important to take into account that if

farmers will play a role in environment protection, they will need to have a profit from it. It is

necessary to offer them concrete values, which they will obtain using certain methods of production.

Farm level

The knowledge management system has to support the following tasks:

• To define optimal methods of production (selection of crops, crop rotation, etc.) to guarantee

long-term sustainability of the production and protection of quality of soil as the mean of

production.

• To support decision. If the farmer will be more oriented on classical intensive production or

on the methods of environment protection of production, it has to be done on the concrete

level of environmental valuation.

Micro level

The knowledge management on micro level has to cover the following tasks:

• Monitoring of soil quality.

• Precision farming methods, which will guarantee protection of environment.

• Traceability tools giving evidence of used methods.

Policies

Macro level

The knowledge about changes in policies, standards, changes in subsidies has to be transferred into

such forms that could be easily acceptable by farm management systems. Policies, subsidies,

standards are usually not possible to change on a lower level, but they represent some level of

limitation. It is necessary to transfer this knowledge into decision supporting systems on farm level as

a limitation. It is necessary to support subsidies management and controlling systems.

46 Final SRA

Farm level

It is necessary to include limitations given by policies as components or limitations for decision

support system on farm level. It is necessary to analyse and collect information that is required as

evidence from governmental bodies.

Micro level

The knowledge management on a field level has to guarantee traceability and all monitoring of all

parameters that will be required by legislation.

Economy

Macro level

It is necessary to collect knowledge about costs of inputs on market and also about prizes of

products on the market to give chance to farmers to adapt their behaviour. It is necessary to provide

integration of information in vertical and horizontal agri-food chains and also integration of knowledge

among farmers, advisory and service organisations using a common workspace to guarantee

effective cooperation.

Farm level

There is a need for a decision support system, which will be able, on the basis of economical

information from market, to analyse possible changes in production, selection of suppliers and to

select to whom to sell the production. It is necessary to give the possibility to share a part of the

information in the horizontal and vertical chain.

Micro level

The PF tools have to guarantee effective exchange of information with suppliers.

Public opinion

Macro level

Public opinion could have an influence on consumer behaviour, on the costs of products on the

market, but also could influence policies (for example global warming problem). It is necessary to

analyse different public opinion campaigns and analyse their possible influence on the market.

Farm level

On farm level, it is necessary to include as one criterion for Decision Supporting Systems possible

influences of public opinion campaigns on market.

Good traceability on all farm levels has to be supported.

Micro level

Support for full traceability.

Active participation in IT related standardisation activities will also be necessary in terms of

facilitating that work related to standards does comply with the users' long-term requirements. Here,

having the input of rural users to future standards and regulations will facilitate a faster take up of

ICTs.

The main conclusions of the vision for Future Farm knowledge management system are:

• Both directional knowledge transfer among macro farm and field management level;

Final SRA 47

• Main decision has to be provided on farm level;

• Use standards for communication among levels;

• Use Open Service Architecture;

• For decision system give possibilities;

• To select suboptimal variants;

• To use non deterministic methods.

To provide optimal decision, the system needs to have an access to as much knowledge from global

level as possible (the different macro knowledge was mentioned before). Any missing knowledge

could have an effect on the final decision. There are many limitations, but also many freedoms for

decision. It is necessary to mentioned one risk. If all farmers will use the same input knowledge and

the same deterministic algorithm, the usage of such decision could lead to distortion of the market.

There exist two possible options, which could guarantee non uniform decision:

• To use suboptimal variants.

• To use non deterministic methods for decision.

4.12 The Research Agenda and the Action Plan by the Technology Platform for

Organic Food and Farming

TP Organics has published a Research Vision 2025 (2008) and a Strategic Research Agenda, with

concrete research priorities (2009). In December 2010, TP Organics finalised its Implementation

Action Plan. The Implementation Action Plan considered how innovation can be stimulated through

organic food and farming research and, crucially, translated into changes in business and agricultural

practice. TP Organics argues for a broad understanding of innovation that includes technology,

know-how and social/organisational innovations. Accordingly, innovation can involve different actors

throughout the food sector. The action plan also addresses knowledge management in organic

agriculture, focusing on the further development of participatory research methods. A key role will

have ICT in particular in providing new information management systems and better communication

between the different actors. In the future ICT will also play an important role in communicating

values and providing tools for consumers to enable ethical decision making concerning food (already

tested in the organic food sector in a pioneer phase.

European agriculture faces specific challenges but at the same time Europe has a unique potential

for the development of agro-ecology based solutions that must be supported through well focused

research. TP Organics believes that the most effective approaches to agriculture and food research

will be systems-based, multi- and trans-disciplinary, taking into account the interconnections between

biodiversity, dietary diversity, functional diversity and health must be taken into account.

Finally the action plan identifies six themes which could be used to organise research and innovation

activities in agriculture under Europe’s 8th Framework Programme on Research Cooperation:

• Eco-functional intensification – A new area of agricultural research which aims to harness

beneficial activities of the ecosystem to increase productivity in agriculture.

• The economics of high output / low input farming - Developing reliable economic and

environmental assessments of new recycling, renewable-based and efficiency-boosting

technologies for agriculture

• Health care schemes for livestock - Shifting from therapeutics to livestock health care

schemes based on good husbandry and disease prevention.

• Resilience and “sustainability” - Dealing with a more rapidly changing environment by

focusing on ‘adaptive capacity’ to help build resilience of farmers, farms and production

48 Final SRA

methods. From farm diversity to food diversity and health and wellbeing of citizens - Building

on existing initiatives to reconnect consumers and producers, using a ‘whole food chain’

approach to improve availability of natural and authentic foods.

• Creating centres of innovation in farming communities - A network of centres in Europe

applying and developing trans-disciplinary and participatory scientific approaches to support

innovation among farmers and SMEs and improving research capacities across Europe.[58]

4.13 The third SCAR Foresight exercise

The purpose of the 3rd Foresight Exercise (FEG3) of the Standing Committee on Agriculture

Research (SCAR) is to update the state of some critical driving forces and to focus on the transition

towards an agricultural and food system in a resource-constrained world. Rising resource prices in

recent years, combined with increasing global demand for resources due to a growing population and

increasing wealth, have brought the issue of resource scarcity to the forefront of the political agenda.

In light of agricultural production in a 30-40 years perspective, the following issues were identified as

most critical: (1) “Classical” or “old” scarcities related to natural resource use: fertile land, freshwater,

energy, phosphorus, and nitrogen, (2) “New” scarcities related to environmental limits that aggravate

the “classical” scarcities: climate change including ocean acidification and biodiversity loss, and (3)

Societal contributions that aggravate these scarcities but can also become important pathways for

transitions to sustainable and equitable food consumption and production.

The report is looking from 2 different perspectives, from a productivity perspective or narrative and

from a sufficiency perspective or narrative, when outlining transition pathways. A special subchapter

(6.3.4) is describing trends, drivers and barriers with regard to Information and Communication

Technologies (ICT): “The solution to the problem of future scarcities of natural resources will primarily

be found in technological innovation and changes in consumer and producer behaviour, production

systems and the market. New technologies, underpinned by ICT, will help deliver greater efficiency in

resource use and greater resource substitution. ICT will also be critical in helping bring about the

behavioural changes needed for future sustainable lifestyles. Increasingly, successful agricultural

innovation is about accessing, adapting and applying locally-relevant information and techniques,

available ‘just-in-time’ to respond to rapidly changing opportunities and threats Increasingly, ICTs

empower farmers as innovators by providing:

• ‘smarter’ and more locally appropriate and productive inputs; more effective cultivation and

production techniques;

• risk mitigation strategies and skills;

• support to farmers as active participants in the innovation process.

ICTs are invaluable as increasingly sophisticated farm management tools. as farming enterprises will

make much greater use of decision-support systems in a drive to maximise production efficiency and

minimise costs. ”With regard to barriers and policies for ICT, the report concludes that “In order to

fully realise the benefits of ICTs, there are three broad prerequisites that must be provided: access,

capacity (skills) and applications (services). Access refers to both the hardware and the underlying

infrastructure. Both must be reliable and affordable; additionally, infrastructure must be ubiquitous.

The capacity or skills to use ICTs are the second requirement. These skills are required to varying

degrees at several levels along a continuum ranging from basic end-users (e-literacy) to ICT

specialists with highly developed technical skills. Lastly, there must be applications and services that

are relevant, localised and affordable. This requires developing countries, in particular, to undertake

a complex set of policy, investment, innovation and capacity-building measures, in close coordination

with international donors, the private sector and other partners, to encourage the growth of locally

Final SRA 49

appropriate, affordable and sustainable ICT infrastructure, tools, applications and services for the

agriculture sector and the rural economy.[31]

4.14 Cologne declaration

The Cologne Declaration was prepared at the European conference GeoFARMatics 2010 in Cologne

in Germany, which was organised by the EU-funded projects FutureFarm, agriXchange and the

CAPIGI network. The Cologne Declaration recognises that agri-food and rural ICT must be an

essential part of the European Digital Agenda for 2020.New changes in the global food supply,

growing demands on food quality and quantity, energy demands and environmental aspects

introduce new demands on future knowledge management. The objective of future knowledge

management has to be focused on the agri-food and rural communities to be able to react

adequately to these changes. For this reason, knowledge management has to become part of the

agri-food and rural production system. This requires a clear vision, which has to be based on

discussions with farmers, experts, politicians and other stakeholders. The single digital market,

Future Internet, sharing of knowledge, social networks, protection of data and open access to

information will be essential for farming and rural communities.

The imperative aspects are the following:

• Policy and Leadership

o including representatives of ICT for agriculture and rural development specialists into

the legislative processes of the European Communities leading to the definition of

priorities of the Digital Agenda;

o raising awareness and establishing a social platform for exchange of information among

key participants, especially rural communities;

o supporting a platform for standardisation of information inside rural communities and the

agri-food sector but also between the agri-food sector and other sectors;

o including rural knowledge management as an essential part of the future European

Strategic Development plan;

o building a coherent strategy for rural public sector information management.

• Research and Innovation- The development of knowledge-based systems for the farming

sector has to be supported by ICT focused on:

o Future Internet and Internet of things including sensor technology and machine to

machine communication;

o Service Oriented Architecture as a key element of architectures for future knowledge

management systems;

o The power of social networks and social media or so called knowledge internet;

o Management and accessibility of geospatial information as a key information source for

any decision;

On the application side the focus has to be on:

o ICT applications for the complete traceability of production, products and services

throughout a networked value chain including logistics;

o Collaborative environments and trusted sharing of knowledge and supporting

innovations in agri-food and rural areas, especially supporting food quality and security;

50 Final SRA

o ICT applications supporting the management of natural resources and rural

development.

• Future Technological Solutions - Future Internet architectures must reflect the needs and

specificity of rural communities. It has to be resilient, trustworthy and energy-efficient and

designed to support open access and increasing heterogeneity of end-points. Networks

should sustain a large number of devices, many orders of magnitude higher than the current

Internet, handle large irregular information flows and be compatible with ultra-high capacity,

end-to-end connectivity. Service Oriented Architectures have to provide methods for

systems development and integration where systems group functionality around business

processes and package these as interoperable services. The future development of

technology has to be based on a broader use of social networks. It is important to support

the development of machine-readable legislation, guidelines and standards to integrate

management information systems with policy tools.

• Standardisation - Integration and orchestration among services based on semantic

integration of collaborative activities, including semantic compatibility for information and

services, as well as ontologies for collaboration will be a major priority for future solutions.

• Social organisation of knowledge management - The concept of Trust Centres has to

represent an integrated approach to guarantee the security aspects for all participants in the

future farm. There will be a growing importance of protection of privacy and I Intellectual

Property Rights (IPR) because trust of information is one from the priorities for all rural

communities. Pan European Social Networks have to support trust centres and enable such

technologies as cloud applications and which will have to guarantee knowledge security.

• Social and Human Aspects - Rural businesses are usually small or medium-sized

businesses according to the number of people they employ and so knowledge management

and internal processes are different from large companies. Future knowledge systems have

to be based on each community’s own concepts of value, cultural heritage and a local vision

of a preferred future. The objective is to develop human-centred reference models of

sustainable rural life-styles that overcome social divisions and exclusion and include unique

rural features and create new rural businesses and social infrastructures and attractive

computer-based education.

• Environmental Aspects - Societal and political pressures for increased environmental

standards are expected. It will be necessary to discuss such aspects as the use of GM

production and environmental aspects of bio fuel production. These aspects will, on one

side, require exact economical, health and environmental mathematical analysis and, on the

other side, public discussion and e participation on such decisions.

The Cologne Declaration entreats all public and private agents to create a new strategic framework

of cooperation to promote:

• Defined key objectives for the agri-food and rural Digital Agenda for 2020;

• Support for the development of future internet technologies and the internet of things;

• Support for social networking to reach consensus about future environmental, economic and

social priorities of agri-food and rural strategies;

Final SRA 51

• The initiation of a continuous e-conference of all stakeholders to define a clear future

strategy and priorities;

• Support for new ICT and knowledge-based solutions supporting the development of future

generations of rural businesses;

• Support the development of knowledge technologies to guarantee, in the future, high quality

food production;

• Open public discussion on how to solve future problems and to secure food production

versus the production of energy and environmental benefits. [40].

4.15 Vision, Strategic Research Agenda and Third Implementation Action Plan

(2009) of the European Agriculture Machinery Industry (Subplatform AET of

the Technology Platform MANUFUTURE

The proposals of AET in their vision, Strategic Research Agenda and their Action Plan emphasise

the need for research in the following areas: Sustainable Plant Production: Smart Sustainable

Agricultural Production Machines Systems and Architectures, Innovative power train technology in

mobile working machines, Safe Workplace 2025 / Future Agri Human Machine Interfaces. Improved

machine efficiency, Sustainable Animal Production: Innovative and Animal Welfare related Milking

Technology, systems for small and medium-sized livestock units (SMLU) and organic farms (OF),

Climatisation of animal facilities. Bioenergy and Renewable Materials: Biomass provision concepts

for future biofuel applications. Harvesting and provision chains for new agricultural biomass residues,

etc. For these technological applications the use of information technologies and sensors play an

important role [58].

4.16 ICT Agri Eranet

ICT-AGRI is the 7th Framework Programme for Research ERA-NET project. ERA-NET has to

develop and strengthen the European Research Area in the area of ICT for Agriculture through

practical initiatives coordinating regional, national and European research programmes in this field

[41]. There are four objectives of ICT-AGRI:

• Mapping and analysis of existing research and future needs;

• Development of instruments and procedures for transnational funding activities;

• Development of strategic transnational research agenda and programmes;

• Establishing and maintaining of international collaborations and networks.

The main results of ICT Agri, which are important for agriXchange, are:

• ICT-AGRI Fact Sheet;

• Analysis of existing research and future needs identified by French actors;

• Reports on the organisation of research programmes and research institutes in 15

European countries.

There are important facts recognised by ICT-AGRI Fact Sheet:

• The agricultural sector is currently facing a conflicting challenge: to produce more food and

maintain high food quality and animal welfare standards while reducing agriculture’s

environmental footprint.

• Information and communication technologies (ICTs) can help farmers address these issues,

but European research on the use of ICTs in agriculture is fragmented.

• The ICT-AGRI is trying to coordinate European research in this important area to ensure that

the massive potential of ICTs in the farming sector is not wasted [42].

52 Final SRA

Inside of ICT Agri project the French national network has identified the following challenges:

• Obvious lack of interfacing tools able to manage and use "intelligently" the knowledge bases

provided by the many data collection systems.

• Need to develop "global information systems" to monitor and run the farm that include all the

levels (e.g. for livestock production: management at animal, herd and farm levels) and

beyond the farm (e.g.: "quality" traceability after processing).

• Too specific an offer from software manufacturers and one that is insufficiently interoperable

• Shortage of software designed to manage the fleet of equipment and sites.

• Emphasis to be placed on the exporting/sharing of information among all the actors in the

production sector as part of a "paperless" approach.

• Encouraging the development of open source software and related interfaces.

• Necessary development of models and tools allowing for planning, supervision, forecasting

and decision support.

• Building of operational decision-making processes.

• Computer models of farms helping to analyse and to devise work organisation methods and,

more generally, resource management.

• Necessary development of new sensors.

• Development of research on wireless sensor networks.

• Concern for managing the energy autonomy of sensors.

• Need to move towards a greater integration of automated systems in the farm’s global

information system.

• Effort required to have systems that are easy to use and within the reach of end-users.

• Inclusion of integrity/security dimensions essential for the dissemination of automated and

robotic solutions on the market.

• Special responses to be given to certain specific production sectors at national level like

Wine growing/tree cultivation, Forestry sector, Organic matter spreading, Confined animal

production systems.

• Need to develop fresh disruptive approaches combining performance and production quality.

• Need to develop model-based anticipatory and predictive control systems.

• New technologies derived from robotics to do away with hard, tedious tasks.

• Special requirements of the agronomic risk management chain.

• Ever obvious shortage of interoperability, both for data collection systems and for system

software packages.

• Need for financial support to encourage actors to take part in standardisation groups.

• Need to have methods and results for the performance assessment of systems proposed for

Precision Agriculture and Precision Livestock Breeding, with a multi-criteria approach.

• Need for collective dynamics between users and suppliers and for collective organisation

methods to be developed promoting the dissemination of these technologies.

• Promote a "use-centred" design approach.

• Re-examination of the value chain.

• Seminal effect of the "Energy" dimension.

• Facilitator effect of new environmental requirements.

• Possibility to reduce investment levels by pooling certain technological components.

• Advisable to take into account the uncertainties regarding sensor data and related

processing.

Final SRA 53

• Strongly advisable to set up both initial and continuing training modules [43].

The country report of ICT Agri was focused on the following areas:

• ICT applications to be used in primary agricultural or horticultural production, including online

resources.

• Automated or semi-automated machinery, equipment for primary agricultural or horticultural

production.

• Standardisation of data dictionaries and communication protocols for use in primary

agricultural or horticultural production.

• ICT and automation in environmental regulation of primary agricultural or horticultural

production.

• Effects of ICT and automation on competitiveness, profitability, and environmental impacts

of agricultural or horticultural production.

• Business structures in sale and support of ICT and automated machinery in agricultural or

horticultural production.

The country report includes 210 research institutes relevant to the ICT-AGRI research area. The

country report also has some important limitations. During the next mapping step, done via the ICT-

AGRI Meta Knowledge Base, more specific information about research projects and profiles of

researchers and research organisations will be mapped. The result will give a clear overview of the

current strengths and gaps in the research area of ICT and robotics in agriculture and agri-

environment [44].

ICT Agri is currently also working on an own SRA. The document is not yet available. The idea is to

use both results for future work under the umbrella of EFITA (or eventually some other network).

4.17 agriXchange analysis of data exchange in agriculture in the EU27 &

Switzerland

The report highlights the results of research on the current situation of data exchange in EU member

states and Switzerland. The current situation was a compilation of a literature review and

investigation of the state of the art in these countries.

In arable farming so called precision agriculture (PA) is one of the driving forces for data exchange

and issues related to data formats and interface standardisation. Currently, new automation, ICT and

GIS technologies provide solutions for steering and controlling site-specific production systems to

fulfil requirements of safe, efficient, environment friendly and traceable production. To enable

compatibility between different system parts that are needed in performing PA, an information

management system which uses open system interfaces and ICT standards, such as ISOBUS, and

efficient data transfer are required.

Much effort has been placed towards spatial data harmonisation in the past and positive results are

emerging especially in efforts towards standardisation work of the Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc.

(OGC) and ISO/TC211 Geographic Information/Geomatics. Another relevant harmonisation work is

related to the INSPIRE Directive. The scope of standard development of ISO/TC 211 is also relevant

and includes information technology, GIS, Remote Sensing (RS), Global Position System (GPS) and

other advanced concepts, models, patterns and technical methods. Geography Markup Language

(GML) identical to ISO standard 19136:2007 provides a variety of kinds of objects for describing

geography including features, coordinate reference systems, geometry, topology, time, units of

measure and generalised values.

The implications of ICT and data transfer in livestock production directly affect consumers in terms of

awareness and knowledge of consumers, information transfer for food safety, animal health and

54 Final SRA

welfare, efficient plant and animal production and sustainability of production systems. Expected ICT

developments in the coming years include developments towards external storage of farmer’s data to

cater for increasing amount of data produced. Centralised management information’s systems, with

internet-based cloud support are foreseen.

Geographical Positing Systems (GPS) is seen to become a of future agricultural technology in terms

recording field data collection, yield mapping automated Variable Rate Applications (VRA) in seeding

and fertilising amongst others.

According the results of the research, arable farms are largest in the Czech Republic, Denmark, UK

and France. The largest dairy farms were in Denmark, Cyprus, Czech Republic and the UK.

Farm automation level: by characterising precision farming (PF) as a measure of farm automation, in

most EU countries, PF is only used to a small extent by farmers. However, there is a significant

difference in areas across Europe, in Western and North Europe and for example in Czech Republic

there is more progress in PF development. Manufacturers of agricultural machines are the main

booster for adaptation of PF techniques in developed countries such as Germany, the Netherlands,

Denmark and Finland.

In general big differences all over Europe can be seen in data integration at process level. The

availability and accessibility of (broadband) Internet in rural areas is an issue in most countries.

Except from some countries like Germany, France, Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands, no

(private) unions or bodies are reported who take care of the organisation of dataflow or

standardisation.

In many EU countries data definitions (semantics) have only public standards (XML schemas and

web services for example) mentioned. Standards definitions such as ISOBUS are available for

example machinery (ISObus), milking equipment (ISO 11788 ADED), electronic animal identification

(ISO 11784/11785/14223 and 24631) or forestry (ISO 19115), ISOagrinet (international), Agro EDI

Europe and Edaplos (France), AgroConnect (The Netherlands) were reported. However, data

integration along the whole food chain from farm to consumer is still lacking.

Analysis of the European area points out that it can be divided into four different levels of maturity on

data integration. The levels are; countries with none or hardly any data integration, those with poorly

developed data systems, countries with rather well developed systems and countries with quite well

developed data integration systems.

Education and demonstration about new technology adaptation, agricultural software, available

databases and digital information sources can help farmers to develop usage possibilities. Also

implementation of the (most easy) best practices from other EU regions in addition to use and

connections to existing global standards is needed.

Private businesses need coordinated organisation in setting up integrated systems for agriculture.

Countries with rather good data integration (Scandinavian states, CZE, GBR, IRL, BEL, CH) were

reported to demonstrate progressive involvement by private organisation within the past years.

The final level, level 4, are countries with fairly well developed data integration (FRA, DEU, NLD,

DNK). In these countries, system assessment and move towards open/shared communities is

already in place. Infrastructure based on hub structures (such as in communicating and transporting

systems) are also available.

The high-technology, high agricultural diversity cluster appears in countries like Finland, Spain,

Germany and Italy. They are characterised by a fairly high degree of organisation among

stakeholders in agricultural data exchange and good technical infrastructure availability.

Networking challenged cluster includes countries like Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands. Within

these countries, open cooperation, also on the international level is an issue. Overcoming the

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situation can be achieved by forming open networks and enhancing exchange of knowledge,

technologies and information between the public and the private sector.

The infrastructure challenged cluster consists of the countries Bulgaria, Greece, Ireland, Latvia,

Lithuania, and Portugal. Within these countries, wireless broadband connectivity or even basic

internet connectivity needs to be enhanced in rural areas. Information and education about

agricultural software, available databases and digital information sources can help farmers to

develop a view on benefits and usage possibilities.

To cater for the disparities of technological adaptation in different sections in the EU regions, the

following recommendations are given. In regions with most small farms and poor farmers usually no

standardisation and hardly any ICT is available, it is recommended that data structures should be

organised by public services to get developments started. The import of systems and data standards

through private business (through multinational trade) will help as well. Last recommendation for this

region is to copy knowledge (learn) from obligatory public services from other countries with

structured and standardised ICT systems for agricultural data transfer. The regions with problems

related to aging of farmers hence low rates of adaption of ICT by farmers, it is recommended in these

countries that the effect of adapting new technology should be demonstrated, and reinforced by

education, not only for learning purposes but also to create a new and enthusiastic working

environment for younger aged workers.

Build reliable public (CAP) services and extend them with Web Services to provide private business

with development opportunities for standardisation and practical implementation of CAP in the EU

countries. International initiatives are needed, too, and stronger countries in ICT should take the lead

in new international data integration initiatives and use international/global standardisation bodies like

ISO or UN/CEFACT.

Combine/redesign the best of several standards in different nations, like EDI-teelt – agroXML -

EDaplos.

In closing, the following general conclusions are given as big challenges in data exchange currently

and in future. For improving business in the agri-food supply chain networks, investment is needed in

creating trust and awareness in the chain, adoption of new technology by means of open innovations

is needed, new collaborative and service-oriented infrastructures are to be developed, implementing

business process standards and service-oriented approaches should be practiced, and standards set

against the backdrop of current EU policy should set, chosen and adopted. The policy implications

controlling efficient data inquiry for boosting CAP in the EU is crucial. EU or national governments

should play active roles directing the development of data standards. Private-public partnership is

needed to address issues with limited investment possibilities, especially in small domains and

countries. Involvement of public organisations in the setup of (private-public) collaborative data

infrastructure can be achieved through the initiation of common data structures in the EU, through

the initiation of (further) research on the implementations of common data structures and through

stimulating the availability of (broadband) internet infrastructure and capacity in rural areas. It is

discussed that the investigation was meant to provide an overview of the state of the art in data

exchange as bias for further project work.

The identification of key factors for the added value generated by a common data exchange system

was not precisely elaborated. The quantification of the benefits arising from overcoming these

barriers is beyond the scope of this analysis. Finally, as a recommendation, benefits arising from

overcoming the barriers discussed in this report should be quantified through future research. The

effect of adopting new technologies needs to be clearly demonstrated in EU countries and societies.

Data integration through open networks should be actively organised in these near years [45].

56 Final SRA

4.18 Conclusions from the overview of past activities

In our analysis we looked on several projects and documents focused on a vision of future ICT for

agri-food or eventually ICT for rural development. There were a number of really technological

projects, which are not mentioned (WirelessInfo, PreMathMod, c@r, COIN IP, SmartAgriFood,

agINFRA). The results of these projects are already partly overcome, and results or technological

visions of some of them will be used in the next chapters.

If we compare the changes in recommendations during the last ten years, we can see the biggest

progress in deployment of communication infrastructure. The progress in deployment of

infrastructure in Europe was very fast and changes from one year to the other were visible. About a

big part of Europe we can say that almost anybody has potential access to broadband (in rural

regions with lower bandwidths), that there is almost complete coverage of Europe by GSM and large

parts of Europe are covered by 3G technologies. Important phenomena become WIFI technologies.

Through WIFI hotspots you have the chance to connect to the Internet in many places in Europe.

The potential of WIMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) is not used in full scale

yet. There is approximately 10 years of delay in developing countries in the implementation of the

infrastructure. But current status shows a fast development of mobile networks.

Already the “Study on Availability of Access to Computer Networks in Rural Areas” recognised that

the take up of new solutions into practice and also research in agri-food and rural applications is

slower than the deployment of the infrastructure. We can see that application priorities are not

changing so fast. For example some priorities including support for networking of organisations and

support for traceability can be seen as a major priority for the whole period. The big problem is

information exchange and interoperability. The reasons of these problems are:

• In many analysed studies social aspects were mentioned, in many countries the rural

population is older with lower education than urban communities. This is one of the reasons

of low take up in rural regions.

• Until now the connectivity and availability of data infrastructure in rural regions is lower.

• If we are looking on agri-food sector, we can recognise one important difference. Food

market is globalised and food market requires global information. Till now agro production is

mainly locally oriented and is working mainly with local information. The use of global

information in farms is limited. There is also a problem, that farming software is fragmented

and usually is developed by local developers. There is exception like precision farming

system developed by big machinery producers, but usually this software covers only small

segment of farming production. It was already recognise by Future Farm and ICT Agri, that

future farming decision making has to be built on global information and that in future this

global information will be necessary for farm competitiveness. This will also help to farming

sector to compete with food sector, which is acting locally.

If we are analysing all the previous results, we can recognise one other important fact. The research

in ICT for Agri-food sector is diversified and different research group are not acting together. We can

see that in many projects the same exercises with similar results are repeated and usually there is no

long-term sustainability for the ICT Agri-food research.

The allocation of resources for the ICT for Agriculture research is another issue to be solved. The

financing is partly coming through the ICT programme, partly through the KBBE programme. The

current programmes are particularly focused on ICT in agriculture and it would be useful to organise

a cross-programme joint calls focus on research in this area.

As a conclusion from the overview of past activities, the following areas are necessary to support:

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• The take up of new ICT technologies in primary production.

• Long-term suitability of ICT research and support for long-term vision for RTD development

in the agri-food sector.

• Better implementation of ICT RTD results into practice.

• Strong professional organisation which will unify different efforts of different research and

development groups, but which will be also able to protect interests of communities. The

candidate for such an organisation could be EFITA, but there will be necessary to change its

organisation structure.

• It is important to renew dialogues between politicians to focus on ICT for rural regions as

part of the Horizon 2020 activities.

• Due to the global character of agriculture and food production and the fact that agriculture

production influences and is influenced by environment, it is important to improve dialogue

and transfer of knowledge between developed and developing countries.

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5 Future Trends in ICT -

Future Internet, Open

Data and Open SourceThis chapter describes current trends, which could help ICT for agri-food developers in future to

overcome part of problems with standardisation and interoperability mainly on the level of data

access and data standardisation, in some cases on the level of information standardisation and partly

also on the level of knowledge exchange. These trends are:

• Future Internet;

• Open Source;

• Open Data.

5.1 ICT vision of Future Internet

Future Internet is a general term for research activities on new architectures for the Internet.

Approaches towards a future Internet range from small, incremental evolutionary steps to complete

redesigns (clean slate) and architecture principles, where the applied technologies shall not be

limited by existing standards or paradigms such as client server networking, which, for example,

might evolve into co-operative peer structures. The fact that an IP address denotes both the identifier

as well as the locator of an end system, sometimes referred to as semantic overload, is an example

of a conceptual shortcoming of the Internet protocol architecture [46]. The important aspects of

Future Internet are for example Cloud computing, Internet of Things, Data and Content Management,

Application Service Ecosystem, Security and Interface to Networks and Devices. One from important

ideas is to develop re-usable components, which could be used for developing of new applications. It

could help partly overcome problems of developers with implementation of low level (data

standards). In this chapter are summarised information about past and current initiatives (due their

technical characters only mentioned, but not described in chapter 2), which introduced concepts

leading towards Future Internet. Currently, similar principles are also implemented by agINFRA

project, focused on building infrastructure for agricultural research.

5.1.1 c@r

The concept of Future Internet is new, but some ideas of Future Internet [47] were already

elaborated, implemented and tested in the c@r project (Figure 8) [48], [49].

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Figure 8 C@R Reference architecture

The schema describing the C@R architecture is from Christian Merz et al. / Reference Architecture

for Collaborative Working Environments [49].

The architecture was described as:

• CCS – Collaborative Core Services implemented as reusable software;

• SCT – Software Collaboration Tools;

• OC - Orchestration Capabilities;

• LLA – Living Lab Applications cover end user interactions.

The main idea was to develop re-usable components, which could be integrated by developers into

final applications. Currently, this concept is extended by more projects e.g. FI-WARE and COIN IP.

FI-WARE is focused on architecture design, COIN IP on enterprise collaboration and interoperability

services [50].

5.1.2 COIN IP

COIN IP was looking for a concept of Future Internet from the perspective of business collaboration

and business interoperability. It defines three types of services:

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• Enterprise Collaboration Services supporting collaborative processes in supply chains,

collaborative networks or business ecosystems;

• Enterprise Interoperability Services reducing incompatibilities among enterprises;

• Service Platform as integrating services for enterprise collaboration and enterprise

interoperability based on semantically-enabled Service Oriented Architectures (SSOA) [48],

[49].

COIN IP provided a study of business models. It is working with the concept of SaaS-U (Service

Utility) as specific business model. It expects that the utility paradigm will be used for offering

services. The model expects that use-value and exchange-value are not identical and that in the

future mainly added value services will be sold. The analysis also mentioned the possibility of

domination of the market by few organisations, like in real utilities. [51]. A part of the COIN IP

activities was focused on Open Agriculture Services to define components and interfaces for farm

management. The main idea of COIN was again to develop re-usable components, mainly

supporting interoperability on the level of data, information, services and business processes.

5.1.3 FI-WARE

FI-WARE is currently integrating project with objectives to define architecture and components of

Future Internet. There exist list of other IP collecting user requirements from different areas. The

concepts coming from FI-WARE project will then be tested by numbers of future projects.

According to FI-WARE future internet includes:

• Cloud computing - There are three basic models of Cloud Computing

o Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): rating compute resources;

o Platform as a Service (PaaS): use of a specific programming model and a standard set

of technologies;

o Software as a Service (SaaS): end-users are renting stacked Final Applications; [47]

o The XaaS stacked model [47].

Figure 9 Future Internet Cloud Layers

• Internet of things – understand interconnection of physical object, living organism, person or

concept interesting from the perspective of an application. [47].

• Data and content management - of data at large scale is going to be the cornerstone in the

development of intelligent, customised, personalised, context-aware and enriched

application and services.

• Application Service Ecosystem includes re-usable and commonly shared functional building

blocks serving a multiplicity of usage areas across various sectors.

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• Security - has to guarantee that the personal information provided by users will be

processed in accordance with the user rights and requirements.

• Interface to networks and devices - has to guarantee access to a variety of physical

networks, contents, services, and information provided by a broad range of networks.

5.1.4 SmartAgriFood

SmartAgriFood is one from project collecting requirements coming from agri-food sector and

providing first proof of concept of FI-WARE.

The results of FI-WARE are transferred into the agri-food sector trough the SmartAgriFood project as

a part of the Future Internet Public-Private Partnership (FI-PPP) programme. This project focuses on

three sub systems of the sector:

• smart farming, focussing on sensors and traceability;

• smart agri-logistics, focusing on real-time virtualisation, connectivity and logistics

intelligence;

• smart food awareness, focussing on transparency of data and knowledge representation

[52].

SmartAgriFood project defined the following ten required functions of the Future Internet for agri-food

sector

• Function 1. The Internet is not limited to self-standing PCs -direct communication is

possible between the machines, equipment, sensors, mobile phones, household

refrigerators, etc.

• Function 2. There is a mobile equipment as data collector, data viewer (display) and

information transmitter.

• Function 3. Quick and real-time exchange of large amount of data/video/3D information is

possible.

• Function 4. Content based browsing - intelligent distribution and caching of content -each

piece of information and each object gets an individual ID code. We need to specify properly

what we want to know without knowing where to find it.

• Function 5. Services of customised information automatic integration of information on

demand.

• Function 6. It is possible to position with higher accuracy for exact identification of objects,

and control of the (agricultural) machines, equipment.

• Function 7. Cloud computing is able to handle tasks requiring high data processing,

computing capacity. Users do not need to have their own infrastructure; it is available and

accessible through the Internet at low cost and when necessary. Interworking is possible

between local sub-systems and global system (cloud).

• Function 8. Higher privacy which guarantees the protection of personal data.

• Function 9. Global data warehousing and management capability is available (application

for diseases, pesticides, fertilisers, foreign body, reference samples, etc.).

• Function 10. Ability to monitor meeting a set technical requirements and initiate automatic

corrective actions and/or alarming system operators [53].

For the basic components of Future Internet defined by FI-WARE (see below) SmartAgrifood defines

additional requirements:

• “Cloud Hosting”: the Cloud Hosting concept is the basic enabler for providing scalable

computation, software, data access and storage services. With a cloud, users can rent soft-

62 Final SRA

ware as a service or only as an infrastructure (e.g. data storage), keeping investments for

small companies low. Small software companies will be competitive, as the cloud provides

the possibility to focus on the application development without the need to implement a full

functional platform. This also reduces time to market for new developments.

• Data/Context Management: The Data and Context management implements facilities for

transfer, conversion, storage, analysis and access of a huge amount of data through the

cloud. Further, instead of just processing data, the meaning of data is linked, allowing end-

users to interpret data in a certain context. This functional block will enable a manifold of

applications, e.g. intelligent decision support systems for farming or logistics, video or image

processing for surveillance of the product quality or the integration of food or product specific

ontologies or vocabulary.

• Internet of Things Services Enablement: Instead of only connecting computers and servers,

the Internet of Things (IoT) takes all physical objects into account and extends the

capabilities of entities to process information autonomously, react proactively and context

sensitive to their current environment. It will support the communication, resource

management, data handling and process automation of sensors, Radio-frequency

identification (RFID) systems, or peer-to-peer machinery communication. It would support

scenarios of e.g. online greenhouse management, remote machinery diagnostics or tracking

of goods and their quality.

• The Applications/Services Ecosystem and Delivery Framework: It will enable the creation,

composition, delivery, monetisation and use of applications and services on the Future

Internet. It also supports business aspects related to the service provisioning, such as

offering, accounting, billing and Service Level Agreement (SLA). Through composition of

components developed and provided by different parties, new services tailored to the needs

of specific usage areas can be provided. It offers the potential for e.g. Farm Management

Systems, virtual market places for goods and services (e.g. transportation, spraying), legal

compliancy and quality certifications, advisory services (e.g. e-veterinarian) or discussion

groups of stakeholders.

• Interface to Networks and Devices: A broad range of devices will be enabled to

communicate in the Future Internet through any wireless or fixed physical network

connection at any place. Users will have their working environment and their applications,

independent of the device, the location, the service provider or local (legacy) infrastructure.

This enabler ensures one of the top priority demands of the food chain users, having a

seamless service anywhere and anytime with any device.

• Security: Common to any application is the strong requirement of privacy, integrity and

security, providing the foundation to get acceptance and trust from all stakeholders. It

handles aspects of encryption, data access policies, fraud- and intrusion detection and

identity management. The success of a manifold of Future Internet scenarios will rely on a

proper implementation of the security aspects, ensuring that data will be only accessible

from an authorised set of stakeholders and for the agreed purpose [54].

SmartAgriFood is now finishing the collection of user requirements in the first pilot trials. This will be

used for testing and deployment of generic infrastructure in the second call of FI PPP.

5.1.5 agINFRA

The Vision of the agINFRA is to develop an infrastructure for scientific agricultural data and to

improve service deployment for data by transferring scientific and technological results from the

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agricultural field into real outcomes. Moreover agINFRA is proposing to create a high interoperability

between agricultural and other data resources. The key goals and corresponding project objectives

are as follows:

Scientific Goal: Increased sharing and federation of agricultural data

• Successfully deploy an open infrastructure for the sharing of digital agricultural content

• Include in the infrastructure resources ranging from raw observational and experimental data

through to publications

• Promote the sharing of data amongst the wider scientific community to build trust

• Ensure outcomes significantly advance the state-of-the art in agricultural e-infrastructures

Scientific Goal: Efficient data management in the agricultural research process

• Ensure stakeholder needs are met with regards to data management and sharing

• Involve as many agricultural data sources as possible to provide maximum value

• Facilitate easier curation, certification, annotation, navigation and management of data

• Create new opportunities for data intensive research in the agricultural domain

Technical Goal: Deployment of robust European service infrastructure for scientific agricultural data

• Deploy tools (exchange standards, software, methodologies) for collaboration between

European institutions in data-intensive research

• Validate the approach by enabling users to interact with each other and the data

• Identify gaps in standards that will be needed to guarantee the integrity/authenticity of data

• Establish specific and realistic indicators to measure success

Technical Goal: High interoperability between agricultural and other data resources

• Improve interoperability between existing e-infrastructures

• Successfully interconnect agricultural data repositories through extended metadata

• Advance implementation and adoption of European standards and specifications [55]

Generally agINFRA project is in initial phase, so it is difficult to recognise, if this initiative will reach its

objectives.

5.2 Open Source Software (OSS)

Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is available with source code: the source

code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under an open-

source license that permits users to study, change, improve and at times also to distribute the

software. Open source software is very often developed in a public, collaborative manner. Software

developers may want to publish their software with an open source license, so that anybody may

also develop the same software or understand its internal functioning. With open source software,

generally anyone is allowed to create modifications of it, port it to new operating systems and

processor architectures, share it with others or, in some cases, market it. There were pointed out

several policy-based reasons for adoption of open source, in particular, the heightened value

proposition from open source (when compared to most proprietary formats) in the following

categories:

• Security.

• Affordability.

• Transparency.

• Perpetuity.

• Interoperability.

• Localisation[56],[57]

64 Final SRA

Open source software and components usually support newest standards and usage of OSS could

help to developers again overcome part of the problem with standards for data and in some cases

also for information access. In last year’s also some big ICT vendors like for example IBM are

moving more and more towards OSS. Use and development of OSS is changing business paradigm

from delivery software towards delivery services.

Currently there exist different OSS initiatives. As examples could be mentioned:

• Open Source Initiative (OSI), which is a non-profit corporation with global scope formed to

educate about and advocate for the benefits of open source and to build bridges among

different constituencies in the open source community. One of our most important activities

is as a standards body, maintaining the Open Source Definition for the good of the

community. The Open Source Initiative Approved License trademark and programme

creates a nexus of trust around which developers, users, corporations and governments can

organise open source cooperation.[58]

• The Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) was created to support the collaborative

development of open source geospatial software, and promote its widespread use. OSGeo

is a not-for-profit organisation whose mission is to support the collaborative development of

open source geospatial software, and promote its widespread use. The foundation provides

financial, organisational and legal support to the broader open source geospatial community.

It also serves as an independent legal entity to which community members can contribute

code, funding and other resources, secure in the knowledge that their contributions will be

maintained for public benefit. OSGeo also serves as an outreach and advocacy organisation

for the open source geospatial community, and provides a common forum and shared

infrastructure for improving cross-project collaboration.[59]

5.2.1 Open Data

The concept of open data is not new; but a formalised definition is relatively new - the primary such

formalisation being that in the Open Definition which can be summarised in the statement that "A

piece of data is open if anyone is free to use, reuse, and redistribute it - subject only, at most, to the

requirement to attribute and/or share-alike."[60]

Open data is often focused on non-textual material such as maps, geonomes, connectomes,

chemical compounds, mathematical and scientific formulae, medical data and practice, bioscience

and biodiversity. Problems often arise because these are commercially valuable or can be

aggregated into works of value. Access to, or re-use of, the data is controlled by organisations, both

public and private. Control may be through access restrictions, licenses, copyright, patents and

charges for access or re-use. Advocates of open data argue that these restrictions are against the

communal good and that these data should be made available without restriction or fee. In addition, it

is important that the data are re-usable without requiring further permission, though the types of re-

use (such as the creation of derivative works) may be controlled by license. [61]

Public sector information (PSI) is the largest source of information in Europe. It is produced and

collected by public bodies and includes digital maps, meteorological, legal, traffic, financial, economic

and other data. Most of this raw data could be re-used or integrated into new products and services,

which we use on a daily basis, such as car navigation systems, weather forecasts, financial and

insurance services. Public sector information is an important source of potential growth of innovative

online services through value-added products and services. Governments can stimulate content

markets by making public sector information available on transparent, effective and non-

discriminatory terms. For this reason, the Digital Agenda for Europe singled out the reuse of public

Final SRA 65

sector information as one of the key areas for action. [62] Re-use of public sector information means

using it in new ways by adding value to it, combining information from different sources, making

mash-ups and new applications, both for commercial and non-commercial purposes. Public sector

information has great economic potential. [63] The European Data Forum (EDF) is a meeting place

for industry, research, policymakers and community initiatives to discuss the challenges of Big Data

and the emerging Data Economy and to develop suitable action plans for addressing these

challenges. Of special focus for the EDF are Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), since

they are driving innovation and competition in many data-driven economic sectors. The range of

topics discussed at the European Data Forum ranges from novel data-driven business models (e.g.

data clearing houses), and technological innovations (e.g. Linked Data Web) to societal aspects (e.g.

open governmental data as well as data privacy and security). [64]

Open Linked Data

Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the Web and Linked Data initiator, suggested a 5 star deployment

scheme for Open Data (Figure 10). Here, we give examples for each step of the stars and explain

costs and benefits that come along with it. The principles are

make your stuff available on the Web (whatever format) under an open license1

make it available as structured data (e.g., Excel instead of image scan of a table)

use non-proprietary formats (e.g., CSV instead of Excel)

use Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) to identify things, so that people can point at your stuff

link your data to other data to provide context

Figure 10 The 5-start deployment scheme for Open Data [65]

Linked Data is about using the Web to connect related data that wasn't previously linked, or using the

Web to lower the barriers to linking data currently linked using other methods. More specifically,

Wikipedia defines Linked Data as "a term used to describe a recommended best practice for

exposing, sharing, and connecting pieces of data, information, and knowledge on the Semantic Web

using (URIs) and Resource Description Framework (RDF)." [66] In computing, linked data describes

a method of publishing structured data so that it can be interlinked and become more useful. It builds

upon standard Web technologies such as Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and URIs, but rather

than using them to serve web pages for human readers, it extends them to share information in a

way that can be read automatically by computers. This enables data from different sources to be

connected and queried. [67], [68]

5.3 Conclusion from Future Trends

In future trends, we mentioned two approaches, which could be considered competitive Future

Internet and mainly Cloud solution and Open Source initiative. It is necessary to mention, that Future

Internet is mainly pushed by big industry, the idea is to replace selling of software by selling

infrastructure, platforms and services. Open Source Software is now supported by both, small and

medium businesses, but also part of large industry, also Open Source development is more focused

on offering services, but also on offering software integration. The vision of Future Internet is that the

cloud will become a reality to overcome the problems of monopolies and opening possibilities for

small and medium developers to use existing infrastructure and platform, eventually to offer also

application to end users. For the future growth of the Open Source market, it is necessary to look on

66 Final SRA

such models, which will attract producers of software to publish their systems as Open Source. It is

also important to find for them sustainable business models. The goal is in principle not only to build

communities, but also to open the chance to generate profit for primary producers of such systems

and components. For Open Source developers and integrators is also important openness of

software and possibility to modify existing tools. This could be problem of Future Internet, if the code

will not be available and existing tools will limit developers. The optimal for future is some

convergence of both ways. Two aspects are important:

1. Interoperability and service-oriented architecture, which allows easy replacement of one



2. Support for large-scale use of Open Sources [69], [70], [71] by Future Internet. Currently,

Open Source generates business for companies which customise solutions into final

applications. Such web-based solutions could generate profit for SMEs developers.

Open data initiative and Public Sector Information are important also for agri-food sector. Till now,

mainly farmers are limited by restricted access to data, information and knowledge. As it was already

mentioned, farming has become knowledge-based industry and knowledge will be the driver. The

Linked Data introduce new semantic principles into Web resources and also could be useful for agri-

food sector.

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6 Future challenges for

ICT for Agri-foodWhat are the future challenges? What will influence the future rural development and farming sector?

What could be the future trends? What will be the future of rural ICT in the period until 2020? What

are the expected changes in ICT infrastructure? How will they be innovation driven? What are the

ideas about the future ICT technologies? Why are challenges important? How they will influence

standardisation process and how they could influence long-time sustainability of the agriXchange

initiative.

The agriculture sector is a unique sector due to its strategic importance for both European citizens

(consumers) and European economy (regional and global) which ideally should make the whole

sector a network of interacting organisations. In the next period rural Europe will be radically

transformed in terms of the distribution of people and of economic activity. These changes are

inevitable. A common and future position of each important driver in reality can be different. In many

cases two drivers can act against each other and their future influence on agri-production and food

market depends on regulations and common policy. For example:

• Food quality and safety� Growing food requirements for growing population.

• Food security - Growing requirements for food�Renewable energy production technologies.

• Renewable production energy demand�Demand for more environmentally friendly

production.

The combination of external drivers will introduce new challenges for future ICT for the agri-food

sector and also for all rural communities. Based on the analysis of previous chapters, we can

recognise two groups of challenges:

• Political organisational challenges;

• Technological, innovation and research challenges.

6.1 Why are the challenges important

In previous chapter, there were defined two types of challenges, both types of challenges are

important for the agriXchange initiative, their sustainability, the SRA and also for standardisation

process. We can see two chains of influences (Figure 11)

Figure 11 Two factors that define the long-term sustainability of agriXchange

68 Final SRA

Political and organisational challenges are basic inputs for defining the agriXchange long-term

sustainability (Figure 12).

Figure 12 Four chains of influence

Technological, innovation and research challenges will influence through recognised ICT applications

selected technologies and through these technologies also standardisation processes. This will be

described in chapters 7, 8 and 9. On the basis of this chain, we can say what will be the RTD priority

in the application domain and what are the future technological solutions.

6.2 Political and organisational challenges

On the basis of the analysis in chapter 4, we can define the following political and organisational

challenges

1. To improve the representation of ICT agriculture specialists and users in European

activities - The community of rural ICT researchers, users and developers need to have

stronger representation being partners for political dialogue within the EU. As best potential

candidate seems to be EFITA, because EFITA connects ICT and agri-food community. But it

is important to move EFITA from a club of ICT researchers to a broader community. An

important aspect is to make EFITA more open, better accessible and more active on a

political level. There could be probably some other initiatives like Copa-Cogeca, CEJA,

CGIAR.

2. To include ICT and knowledge management for agri-food and rural communities

generally as a vital part of the ICT policies and initiatives (for example Digital Agenda for

Europe 2020 and Horizon 2020). Previous analysis in this report demonstrated that there

exists an ICT gap between urban and rural areas. This gap is more visible in developing

countries, but also in Europe, North America, East Asia and other countries. Newly coming

solutions such as the single digital market, future internet, globalisation of knowledge, social

media and networks, protection of data and open access to information will be essential for

farming and rural communities. Knowledge becomes one of the most important products -. If

there is no equal access to knowledge by rural communities, the urban-rural gap will grow

and negative trends will continue e.g. abandonment of rural areas.

3. Support better transfer of RTD results and innovation into everyday life of farmers,

food industry and other rural communities-As the analysis in Chapter I demonstrated,

there is a well visible progress worldwide in roll out of basic communication infrastructure.

But the take up of new innovative rural solutions is not so fast and, in many cases, there is a

low transfer of RTD results and innovation into practice. To be able to react on future

demands, fast innovation transfer is necessary. It requires more parallel actions, like better

interaction between support for RTD, innovation and implementation activities (in European

scale Framework programme and Leader activities for example), user demand on research

priority, a focus on long-time sustainability of founded research, but also support for training

and awareness. Training of rural communities will be essential for adoption of new solutions

and technologies. It is also necessary to stimulate open and public scientific debate about

Final SRA 69

such controversial themes such as bio energy production or genetic modified production.

The strategy for transfer of research results into practice for rural regions has to be an

important part of Horizon 2020, the new EU Research Framework Programme. It is

necessary to modify future research activities to be more open for innovation and open for

participation of SMEs in research and innovation processes. SMEs are key enablers for rural

development and they cannot be only passive adopters of results of projects solved by other

organisations. It is important to start with such activities like Smart Rural Regions and

support of Open Innovation and Living Labs in rural regions.

4. To accelerate bottom up activities as a driver for local and regional development - The

aBard vision and DG Agri studies recognised as the key success factors for development of

rural regions specific local activities and the existence of local champions. This could be:

• local actors who are not interested in technology but take up the role for the greater

benefit of the communities they live in,

• younger and higher educated people moving to the rural areas, who wanted to have

almost the same level of services as in cities,

• local businesses with clear innovative and knowledge-based growing strategy that

needs an access to and sharing of knowledge,

• people moving to a rural areas

• people who spend holidays at homes in the rural area, who want similar broadband

access similar to cities and other activities.

5. To support discussion and transfer of knowledge between developed and developing

countries – agriculture, food production, food safety and food security, energy, environment

protection are global issues. It is important to support open discussion between developed

and developing countries about these aspects. It is also important to support transfer of

experiences. It should be bi-directional because for example use of mobile technologies and

effectiveness of using them are now growing in developing countries.

6.3 Technological, innovation and research challenges

On the basis of the analysis in chapter 4, we can define the following technological, innovation and

research challenges:

1. To find a better balance between food safety and security, energy production and

environmentally and socially sound production - As it was defined by Future Farm

project and as it was mentioned in chapter4 the current agriculture and food production is

subject to many different requirements and policy goals. On one side, the worldwide growing

population brings new demands on food, but also on arable land, water, energy and other

biological resources. There is a growing demand for energy and production costs of energy.

On the other side, citizens and markets require a higher quality of food production, but also

new products. It is related with the aging population in some part of the world, but also with

ethnical and cultural changes (migration of population). All of them have generally a strong

influence on the global ecosystems and environment. The influence is bi-directional and

some issues like climatic changes, draughts, floods etc. also have a large influence on

production. We need to find a model of sustainable agriculture production based on

synergies and trade-offs across the economic, environmental and social impacts. This will

require to find new methods of production, but also increasing the level of involvement of

70 Final SRA

citizens in the agri-food value chain. Also new and more integrated systems of sustainability

assessment have to be developed taking better account of the multi-functional aspects of

agriculture e.g. like the SAFA (Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agriculture System)

approach of the FAO UN-Organisation).

2. To support better adoption of agriculture on climatic changes - experiences from past

and discussions on scientific research in social networks demonstrated that climatic changes

have an influence on agriculture production. This influence could be in some cases positive

(for example warming for Nordic countries), but in most cases it is negative. It is necessary

to support farmers with knowledge and how to adopt their production to the new conditions.

3. Making rural regions as an attractive place to live, invest and work, promoting

knowledge and innovation for growth and creating more and better jobs -

Abandonment of cultivated land has been increasing in many regions of the world. In several

parts of Europe, the opposite trend exists with people moving back to countryside, but

without returning to agriculture production. The number of people working in agriculture

decreased in some countries to 2% of the country population. To attract people back to rural

regions, it is necessary to improve infrastructure, possibilities of employment, culture,

education, etc. It includes spatial planning, improvement of the situation of local and regional

SME industries with focus on agri-food industry but also on local production and tourism.

4. To support farming community and rural education, training and awareness building

in ICT -there are many gaps in rural regions, which are limiting the adoption of new ICT

knowledge and new technologies. It is important to support education, training and

awareness building focused on rural regions. There are important aspects like

multilingualism (language skills in rural regions are very often low), social differences, but

also accessibility of information.

5. Build new ICT models for sharing and use of knowledge by agri-food community and

in rural regions generally. Currently we can recognise more shifts of technologies to web-

based and mobile solutions, cloud computing, open access to content, social media,

collaborative platforms and business intelligence. Building on such solutions will not only

help rural communities, but will open also new business opportunities for the local and

regional ICT-industry through development of new applications and tools to support the

European agri-food and rural sector. Participation of local ICT SMEs on the development

and implementation of local applications will play an important role in regional development.

Final SRA 71

7 Application Research

domain for Agriculture,

Food, Rural

development and

Environment On the basis of the analysis, the following application research priorities were identified:







• New generation of applications supporting better and more effective management of



• ICT application supporting adoption of farming practices adapted to climatic changes.

• ICT application supporting energy efficiency on farm level.

• ICT application supporting rural development and local businesses.

• ICT application for education, training and awareness rising.


Table 3 demonstrates the relation of future challenges and application research priorities.

Fin

al

SR

A7

2

Ta

ble

3 M

atr

ix o

f re

lati

on

be

twe

en

Ch

all

en

ge

s a

nd

Ap

pli

ca

tio

ns

res

ea

rch

Do

ma

in

(Gre

en

co

lor

me

an

, th

at

so

me

ap

plic

atio

ns is a

nsw

er

on

co

ncre

te c

ha

llen

ge

)

Ap

plic

ati

on

Re

se

arc

h d

om

ain

Ch

all

en

ges

To

fin

d a

be

tte

r b

ala

nce

be

twe

en

fo

od

safe

ty a

nd

se

cu

rity

, e

ne

rgy p

rod

ucti

on

an

d e

nv

iro

nm

en

tally a

nd

so

cia

lly s

ou

nd

pro

du

cti

on

To

su

pp

ort

be

tte

r ad

op

tio

n o

f ag

ricu

ltu

re

on

clim

ati

c c

han

ge

s

Makin

g r

ura

l re

gio

ns a

s a

n a

ttra

cti

ve

pla

ce

to

liv

e, in

ve

st

an

d w

ork

, p

rom

oti

ng

kn

ow

led

ge

an

d in

no

vati

on

fo

r g

row

th a

nd

cre

ati

ng

mo

re a

nd

be

tte

r jo

bs

To

su

pp

ort

farm

ing

co

mm

un

ity a

nd

ru

ral

ed

ucati

on

, tr

ain

ing

an

d a

ware

ne

ss

bu

ild

ing

in

IC

T

Bu

ild

ne

w IC

T m

od

els

fo

r sh

ari

ng

an

d

use

of

kn

ow

led

ge

by a

gri

/fo

od

co

mm

un

ity

an

d in

ru

ral re

gio

ns g

en

era

ly

ICT

ap

pli

ca

tio

n

su

pp

ort

ing

ru

ral

de

ve

lop

me

nt

an

d

loca

l b

usin

esse

s

ICT

ap

pli

ca

tio

n f

or

ed

uca

tio

n,

tra

inin

g

an

d a

wa

ren

ess

risin

g

ICT

ap

pli

ca

tio

ns

red

ucin

g

ad

min

istr

ati

ve

bu

rde

ns i

n r

ura

l

are

as

Co

lla

bo

rati

ve

en

vir

on

me

nts

an

d

tru

ste

d s

ha

rin

g o

f

kn

ow

led

ge

an

d

su

pp

ort

ing

inn

ova

tio

ns i

n a

gri

-

foo

d a

nd

ru

ral

are

as,

esp

ecia

lly

su

pp

ort

ing

fo

od

qu

ali

ty a

nd

se

cu

rity

Ne

w (

ICT

) str

uctu

res

to s

erv

e s

usta

ina

ble

an

ima

l fa

rmin

g,

esp

ecia

lly

reg

ard

ing

an

ima

l

an

d h

um

an

he

alt

h

an

d a

nim

al

we

lfa

re

ICT

ap

pli

ca

tio

ns f

or

the

co

mp

lete

tra

ce

ab

ilit

y o

f

pro

du

cti

on

,

pro

du

cts

an

d

se

rvic

es t

hro

ug

ho

ut

a n

etw

ork

ed

va

lue

ch

ain

in

clu

din

g

log

isti

cs

Ne

w g

en

era

tio

n o

f

ap

pli

ca

tio

ns

su

pp

ort

ing

be

tte

r

an

d m

ore

eff

ecti

ve

ma

na

ge

me

nt

of

su

sta

ina

ble

ag

ricu

ltu

re

pro

du

cti

on

an

d

de

cis

ion

ma

kin

g i

n

ag

ricu

ltu

reIC

T

ap

pli

ca

tio

ns

su

pp

ort

ing

th

e

ma

na

ge

me

nt

of

na

tura

l re

so

urc

es

ICT

ap

pli

ca

tio

n

su

pp

ort

ing

ad

op

tio

n o

f fa

rmin

g

pra

cti

ce

s a

da

pte

d

to c

lim

ati

c c

ha

ng

es

ICT

ap

pli

ca

tio

n

su

pp

ort

ing

en

erg

y

eff

icie

ncy o

n f

arm

leve

l

Final SRA 73

The following text describes in more detail single research priorities:

• Collaborative environments and trusted sharing of knowledge and supporting

innovations in agri-food and rural areas, especially supporting food quality and

security - The concept of “trust centres” has to represent an integrated approach to

guarantee the security aspects for all participants in the future farm. There will be a growing

importance of protection of privacy and IPR. Trust of information is one of the priorities for all

rural communities. Pan European social networks have to support trust centres and enable

such technologies as cloud applications and which will have to guarantee knowledge

security. [29]

• New (ICT) structures to serve sustainable animal farming, especially regarding animal

and human health and animal welfare- to develop new social-technical (ICT) structures for

protecting, monitoring or risk management of animal health and even more human-animal

related health of society. Risks of zoonotic diseases and antibiotics issues are of high priority

on the European agenda. Animal welfare quality is becoming of major importance for

consumers as it is now for policy


throughout a networked value chain including logistics - to develop world-class network

management solutions that facilitate communication and co-operation between networks of

SMEs and large enterprises in the agri-food and rural development domains. These

solutions will enable the management of food supply chains/networks, virtual and extended

enterprises through collaboration and knowledge exchange. [29]

• New generation of applications supporting better and more effective management of

sustainable agriculture production and decision making in agriculture - Future farm

knowledge management systems have to support not only direct profitability of farms or

environment protection, but also activities of individuals and groups allowing effective

collaboration among groups in agri-food industry, consumers and wider communities,

especially in rural domain. Having these considerations in mind, the proposed vision lays the

foundation for meeting ambitious but achievable operational objectives that will definitively

contribute to fulfil identified needs in the long run. [29]

• ICT applications supporting the management of natural resources - With better

understanding of the environmental relations, the necessary valuation of ecological

performances will become possible. Pilot projects and best practice samples will be the key

to demonstrate for a wide auditorium the benefits of environmental care-taking. New models

of payments for ecosystem services and provision of public goods of the different groups of

beneficiaries have to be worked out (local, regional, national, continental and worldwide) as

well as the best practices between today’s "government owned" environment or "private

owned with social responsibilities" have to be worked out [29]

• ICT application supporting adoption of farming practices adapted to climatic changes

- it is important to support monitoring of influences of climatic changes on farming production

on farm level as well as regional level, taking into account agricultural knowledge and

advisory systems for farmers. Monitoring of influence of climatic changes could be provided

using earth observation, sensor measurements, but mainly using crowd sourcing methods.

Important are also social spaces, where farmers will have the possibility to discuss methods

of farm adoption.

• ICT applications supporting agri-food logistics - the focus has to be on the transportation

and distribution of food, sharing on-line monitoring information from trucks during the

74 Final SRA

transport of cargo, a flexible solution for on-demand dock reservation and an integrated

freight and fleet management. In general, all the selected applications have the same

practical benefits as cost reduction, better coordination and better information for decision

making, and the proactive control of processes leading to increasing efficiency and

effectiveness [72].

• ICT application supporting energy efficiency on farm level - Agriculture production uses

energy in two ways – direct energy consumption is in arable farming mainly related to

machinery energy consumption, indirect energy consumption is related to production of

chemicals and synthetically produced nitrogen-fertilisers used in agriculture. Environmental

effects of savings on direct and indirect energy saving in agriculture are integrally

considered, as energy use efficiency also implies reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

Applications have to focus on development of hardware and software solutions supporting a

significant reduction of the production intensity, in particular the use of energy and chemicals

in crop production. ICT solutions are needed to support operational decision about crop

protection as well as logistics optimisation in agriculture based on advanced sensor

monitoring.

• ICT application supporting rural development and local businesses - Rural businesses

are usually small or medium-sized businesses according to the number of people they

employ. Therefore, knowledge management and internal processes are different from large

companies. Future knowledge systems have to be based on each community’s own

concepts of value, cultural heritage and a local vision of a preferred future. The objective is

to develop human-centred reference models of sustainable rural life-styles that overcome

social divisions and exclusion.

• ICT application for education, training and awareness rising - Agriculture will require

highly educated staff. There will be large shift from manual work to knowledge management.

It will be necessary to provide effective knowledge transfer to as many people as possible,

through a range of services and to meet the diverse knowledge and information needs of our

customers and stakeholders and incorporating management practices and technologies on

the home farm, supervised project work and discussion groups and through linkages with

higher level education institutions. The potential of ICT Tools as well as new social Internet

media in education, training and awareness rising for more sustainable production and life-

styles should be better explored and utilised.

• ICT applications reducing administrative burdens in rural areas - Future ICT

applications have to reduce the administrative burden of enterprises and citizens in rural

areas by reducing the information elicitation process of businesses when they want to use a

particular instance of some public service, or making more effective use of the resources. It

has to include, adapt and deploy a web infrastructure combining semantic services with a

collaborative training and networking approach, in the rural setting. Furthermore it should

include e-Government services that regional public authorities already offer and support

them by a rigorous and reusable service process analysis and modelling, and then deploy a

semantic service that facilitates the disambiguation of the small businesses needs and

requirements when trying to use the particular services. At the same time, the semantic

service is complemented by a number of other web-based services that support the creation

of communities of learning and practice in rural settings, thus facilitating the communication

between the rural businesses with the regional public authorities. [73]

Final SRA 75

8 ICT Technologies for

agri-food and rural

regionsOn the basis of the analysis in Chapters 2, 3, 4 and 5, we have recognised the development of

applications for agri-food sector has to be supported by ICT development in the following areas:

• Future Internet and Internet of Things including sensor technology, cloud computing and

machine to machine communication

• Mobile applications

• Improving of positioning systems.

• Service Oriented Architecture

• Methods of knowledge management

• Semantic models, multilingualism, vocabularies and automatic translation

• New earth observation methods.

• Management and accessibility of geospatial information

• Open data access.

• Open Source development

• New modelling methods

• The power of social networks and social media

• New e-educational methods.

The relation of the application and IST domains is in Table 4.

Fin

al

SR

A7

6

Ta

ble

4 M

atr

ix o

f d

ep

en

de

ncie

s b

etw

ee

n A

pp

lic

ati

on

s d

om

ain

an

d I

CT

de

ve

lop

men

t p

rio

riti

es

(vio

let

co

lor

me

an

, th

at

for

co

ncre

te a

pp

lica

tio

n is im

po

rta

nt

ce

rta

in I

CT

te

ch

no

log

y)

ICT

R

esearc

h d

om

ain

Ap

pli

cati

on

are

a

Co

lla

bo

rati

ve

en

vir

on

me

nts

an

dtr

us

ted

sh

ari

ng

of

kn

ow

led

ge

an

ds

up

po

rtin

gin

no

va

tio

ns

ina

gri

-fo

od

an

dru

ral

are

as

,

es

pe

cia

lly s

up

po

rtin

g f

oo

d q

ua

lity

an

d s

ec

uri

ty

Ne

w(I

CT

)s

tru

ctu

res

tos

erv

es

us

tain

ab

lea

nim

al

farm

ing

,

es

pe

cia

lly

reg

ard

ing

an

ima

la

nd

hu

ma

nh

ea

lth

an

da

nim

al

we

lfa

re

ICT

ap

plic

ati

on

sfo

rth

ec

om

ple

tetr

ac

ea

bilit

yo

fp

rod

uc

tio

n,

pro

du

cts

an

ds

erv

ice

sth

rou

gh

ou

ta

ne

two

rke

dv

alu

ec

ha

in

inc

lud

ing

lo

gis

tic

s

Ne

wg

en

era

tio

no

fa

pp

lic

ati

on

ss

up

po

rtin

gb

ett

er

an

dm

ore

eff

ec

tiv

em

an

ag

em

en

to

fs

us

tain

ab

lea

gri

cu

ltu

rep

rod

uc

tio

n

an

d d

ec

isio

n m

ak

ing

in

ag

ric

ult

ure

ICT

ap

plic

ati

on

su

pp

ort

ing

ad

op

tio

no

ffa

rmin

gp

rac

tic

es

ad

ap

ted

to

clim

ati

c c

ha

ng

es

ICT

ap

plic

ati

on

su

pp

ort

ing

en

erg

y e

ffic

ien

cy o

n f

arm

le

ve

l

ICT

ap

plic

ati

on

su

pp

ort

ing

rura

ld

ev

elo

pm

en

ta

nd

loc

al

bu

sin

es

se

s

ICT

ap

plic

ati

on

fo

r e

du

ca

tio

n,

tra

inin

g a

nd

aw

are

ne

ss

ris

ing

ICT

ap

plic

ati

on

sre

du

cin

ga

dm

inis

tra

tiv

eb

urd

en

sin

rura

l

are

as

Fu

ture

Inte

rne

t a

nd

Inte

rne

t o

f

Th

ing

s

inc

lud

ing

se

ns

or

tec

hn

olo

gy,

clo

ud

co

mp

uti

ng

an

d

ma

ch

ine

to

Op

en

So

urc

e

de

ve

lop

me

nt

Ne

w

mo

de

llin

g

me

tho

ds

Mo

bile

ap

plic

ati

on

s Im

pro

vin

g

of

po

sit

ion

ing

sys

tem

s.

Se

rvic

e

Ori

en

ted

Arc

hit

ec

ture

Me

tho

ds

of

kn

ow

led

ge

ma

na

ge

me

nt

Se

ma

nti

c

mo

de

ls,

mu

ltilin

gu

ali

sm

,

vo

ca

bu

lari

e

s a

nd

au

tom

ati

c

tra

ns

lati

on

Th

e p

ow

er

of

so

cia

l

ne

two

rks

an

d s

oc

ial

me

dia

Ne

w e

-

ed

uc

ati

on

al

me

tho

ds

.

Ne

w e

art

h

ob

se

rva

tio

n

me

tho

ds

Ma

na

ge

me

n

t a

nd

ac

ce

ss

ibilit

y

of

ge

os

pa

tia

l

info

rma

tio

n

Op

en

da

ta

ac

ce

ss

.

Final SRA 77

• Future Internet and Internet of Things including sensor technology, cloud computing

and machine to machine communication - Future Internet architectures must reflect the

needs and specificity of rural communities. It has to be resilient, trustworthy and energy-

efficient and designed to support open access and increasing heterogeneity of end-points.

Networks should sustain a large number of devices, many orders of magnitude higher than

the current Internet, handle large irregular information flows and be compatible with ultra-

high capacity, end-to-end connectivity. Machinery to machinery communication will play an

important role in future solutions. Cloud computing will be used more often in agriculture

applications.

• Mobile applications - information access will be provided more and more using smart

phones and tablets. Mobile equipment will be used not only for accessing databases and

clouds, but more and more also for collection of data. The data collection will be provided by

professionals, but also the role of crowdsourcing applications will grow.

• Improving of positioning systems- will be required by mobile equipment, sensor

technologies, precision farming, logistic, and also by crowdsourcing activities. Combination

of current systems (GPS, Glonas) with coming Galileo system will improve farming systems.

• Service Oriented Architecture as a key element of architectures for future knowledge

management systems. Service Oriented Architectures have to provide methods for systems

development and integration where systems group functionality around business processes

and package these as interoperable services.

• Methods of knowledge management including aspects of interoperability. It is important to

support the development of machine-readable legislation, guidelines and standards to

integrate management information systems with policy tools. Major priorities for future

knowledge systems will be the integration and orchestration among services based on

semantic integration of collaborative activities, including semantic compatibility for

information and services, as well as ontologies for collaboration.

• Semantic models, multilingualism, vocabularies and automatic translation- The

understanding of terms was recognised by AgriXchange project and also by SmartAgriFood,

as one of the big problems for implementing interoperability. So the focus on common

understanding and vocabularies is very important. Another large problem is multilingualism.

Rural citizens in many countries usually are able to speak and write only by their mother

language. Language is a large barrier; improved methods of automatic translation have to

be developed.

• New earth observation methods- will be important for the collection of data on farm level,

but also on global level. Analysis of earth observation data will be used for global production

forecast, for precision farming purposes, but also for better monitoring of biodiversity and

climatic changes.

• Management and accessibility of geospatial information as a key information source for

any decision. Geospatial information includes not only digital maps, ortophotos or satellite

imagery, but also location services and sensors. Importance of geospatial information will

become more and more important and its amount will rapidly grow with new sensor

technologies. Effective methods of management, accessibility and analysis will be important.

78 Final SRA

• Open data access - will become important in near future for improving future farming

management. Better accessibility of spatial and non-spatial data will improve farm

management, but also will open new possibilities for future decision-making systems.

• Open Source development - Open Source development can bring many advantages not

only for research, but also for the commercial community. Open source can help users

(private and public) and the whole IT sector. The future will give more opportunities for open

solutions and also for smaller flexible companies, which will be able to adopt their strategies

and activities reacting pro-actively on new situation. Other important issue is stronger

international cooperation of small companies and not only inside of one country.

• New modelling methods- new modelling methods will become in future more important.

Their importance will be not only in application like precision farming, but also in long-time

planning and decision-making. It will require growing computing capacity to introduce

methods including linear programming or theory of game.

• The power of social networks and social media - The future development of technology

has to be based on a broader use of social networks and social media.

• New e-educational methods- will combine virtual modelling, reasoning, user focused

training and new methods of interactions using mobile applications.

Final SRA 79

9 SRA for standardisation

in agri-food data,

information and

knowledgeThe standardisation objectives for the agri-food community related to expected technological

development are given by Table 5. It is necessary to take into account that an important part of the

standardisation effort will run outside of the agri-food community and the agri-food community will be

in many cases probably the only user of standards coming from different areas. But it is important to

follow technological development and to be able to accept newest standards.

Fin

al

SR

A8

0

Ta

ble

5 A

gri

-fo

od

sta

nd

ard

isa

tio

n n

ee

ds

on

dif

fere

nt

level

of

Da

ta-I

nfo

rma

tio

n-K

no

wle

dg

e h

iera

rch

y f

or

dif

fere

nt

ICT

Re

se

arc

h D

om

ain

s

ICT

Re

se

arc

h d

om

ain

Da

ta-I

nfo

rma

tio

n-K

no

wle

dg

e h

iera

rch

y

Da

ta

Info

rma

tio

n

Kn

ow

led

ge

Fu

ture

In

tern

et

an

d I

nte

rne

t

of

Th

ing

s i

nc

lud

ing

se

ns

or

tec

hn

olo

gy,

clo

ud

co

mp

uti

ng

an

d m

ac

hin

e t

o

ma

ch

ine

co

mm

un

ica

tio

n

On

th

e d

ata

le

ve

l is

in

ten

tio

n o

f F

utu

re

Inte

rne

t to

de

fin

e s

tan

da

rds fo

r d

ata

ma

na

ge

me

nt

an

d a

lso

sta

nd

ard

s f

or

acce

ssin

g o

f e

xte

rna

l d

evic

es.

Fro

m t

he

sid

e o

f a

gri

-fo

od

co

mm

un

ity w

ill b

e

ne

ce

ssa

ry t

o s

up

po

rt in

tera

ctio

n o

f d

evic

es

use

d in

ag

ri-f

oo

d p

rod

uctio

n.

It is f

or

exa

mp

le s

tan

da

rds f

or

da

ta c

olle

ctio

n f

rom

ma

ch

ine

rie

s (

ISO

BU

S),

diffe

ren

t a

gri

cu

ltu

re

an

d f

oo

d t

yp

e s

en

so

rs (

for

exa

mp

le I

EE

E

P1

45

1,

SD

I-1

2,

RF

ID).

Th

e s

en

so

r

sta

nd

ard

isa

tio

n is p

rovid

ed

ma

inly

ou

tsid

e

of

ag

ri-f

oo

d c

om

mu

nity,

bu

t p

art

icip

atio

n o

f

me

mb

ers

of

ag

ri-c

om

mu

nity is im

po

rta

nt.

On

th

e in

form

atio

n le

ve

l, it

is im

po

rta

nt

to

de

fin

e p

roto

cols

(W

eb

se

rvic

es)

or

AP

I a

nd

da

ta m

od

els

fo

r e

xch

an

ge

of

info

rma

tio

n in

diffe

ren

t a

rea

s lik

e t

race

ab

ility

, p

recis

ion

farm

ing

, liv

e t

ran

sp

ort

; w

elfa

re r

eg

ula

tio

ns,

su

bsid

ies s

yste

ms (

for

exa

mp

le L

PIS

),

we

ath

er

info

rma

tio

n,

ma

rke

t in

form

atio

n,

log

istic info

rma

tio

n,

etc

.

Fo

cu

s h

as t

o b

e o

n b

uild

ing

of

on

tolo

gie

s

like

ma

ch

ine

ry o

nto

log

y’s

, che

mic

als

,

cro

ps,

an

ima

ls,

bu

t a

lso

mo

re c

om

ple

x

on

tolo

gie

s r

ela

ted

to

cro

p o

r a

nim

als

pro

du

ctio

n m

eth

od

s,

ag

ricu

ltu

re e

co

mm

erc

e o

nto

log

ies e

tc.

The

re a

lre

ad

y

pa

rtia

lly e

xis

ts a

n e

ffo

rt r

ela

ted

to

AG

RO

VO

C u

nd

er

FA

O [

74

].P

art

of

the

se

activitie

s c

ou

ld b

e p

rob

ab

ly c

ove

red

by

ne

wly

ru

nn

ing

pro

ject

ag

Infr

a [

75

].

Als

o s

uch

th

ing

s lik

e R

DF

will

be

ne

ce

ssa

ry

to d

eve

lop

fo

r so

me

ap

plic

atio

ns.

Fin

al

SR

A

81

ICT

Re

se

arc

h d

om

ain

Da

ta-I

nfo

rma

tio

n-K

no

wle

dg

e h

iera

rch

y

Da

ta

Info

rma

tio

n

Kn

ow

led

ge

Mo

bil

e a

pp

lic

ati

on

s

Da

ta s

tan

da

rds a

re s

olid

ou

tsid

e o

f a

gri

-

foo

d c

om

mu

nity.

Th

e m

ost

use

d s

tan

da

rds

will

be

giv

en

by I

EE

E a

nd

by o

the

r

initia

tive

s.

It is r

ela

ted

to

sta

nd

ard

s f

or

da

ta

tra

nsm

issio

n,

bu

t a

lso

fo

r e

xa

mp

le b

y d

ata

se

cu

rity

.

Th

e s

itu

atio

n w

ith

info

rma

tics‘ sta

nd

ard

s is

sim

ilar

to t

ho

se

of

Fu

ture

In

tern

et.

Th

ere

will

be

a n

ee

d f

or

de

fin

ing

data

str

uctu

res

an

d w

eb

se

rvic

es in

de

pe

nd

en

cy o

n

co

ncre

te a

pp

lica

tio

ns lik

e t

race

ab

ility

,

pre

cis

ion

fa

rmin

g,

live

tra

nsp

ort

; w

elfa

re

reg

ula

tio

ns,

su

bsid

ies s

yste

ms (

for

exa

mp

le

LP

IS),

we

ath

er

info

rma

tio

n,

ma

rke

t

info

rma

tio

n,

log

istic info

rma

tio

n,

etc

.

Als

o h

ere

it

will

be

sim

ilar

like

in

FI.

Fo

cu

s

will

be

ma

inly

on

diffe

ren

t o

nto

log

ies in

de

pe

nd

en

cy o

n a

pp

lica

tio

n a

rea

s.

Als

o

su

ch

th

ing

s lik

e R

DF

will

be

ne

ce

ssa

ry t

o

de

ve

lop

fo

r so

me

ap

plic

atio

ns.

Imp

rove

me

nt

of

po

sit

ion

ing

sys

tem

s

Th

ese

sta

nd

ard

s w

ill b

e g

ive

n b

y e

xte

rna

l

de

ve

lop

me

nt,

th

e a

gri

-fo

od

co

mm

un

ity w

ill

be

ma

inly

co

nsu

me

rs o

f th

e in

form

atio

n.

Th

e f

ocu

s h

as t

o b

e o

n in

tegra

tio

n o

f

po

sitio

na

l in

form

atio

n w

ith

oth

er

typ

e o

f

info

rma

tio

n.

Th

e s

tan

da

rds f

or

exch

an

ge

of

po

sitio

na

l in

form

atio

n w

ill b

e g

ive

n p

rob

ab

ly

ma

inly

by O

GC

or

oth

er

initia

tive

s (

Op

en

LB

se

rvic

es).

It

will

re

qu

ire

fo

r e

xa

mp

le

de

finitio

n a

nd

de

ve

lop

me

nt

of

sp

ecia

lise

d

Ga

ze

tte

ers

, G

eo

pa

rse

rs,

etc

.

Th

e f

ocu

s h

as t

o b

e o

n in

tegra

tio

n o

f

po

sitio

na

l kn

ow

led

ge

with

oth

er

typ

es o

f

kn

ow

led

ge

. T

he

ta

sk w

ill b

e m

ain

ly t

o

de

fin

e t

he

str

uctu

re a

nd

co

nte

nt

for

ag

ricu

ltu

re r

ela

ted

ga

ze

tte

ers

or

sp

atia

l

the

sa

uru

s.

Th

ere

co

uld

be

als

o

de

ve

lop

me

nt

focu

se

d o

n s

patia

l a

gri

-fo

od

on

tolo

gie

s.

82

Fin

al

SR

A

ICT

Re

se

arc

h d

om

ain

Da

ta-I

nfo

rma

tio

n-K

no

wle

dg

e h

iera

rch

y

Da

ta

Info

rma

tio

n

Kn

ow

led

ge

Se

rvic

e O

rie

nte

d

Arc

hit

ec

ture

N/A

Th

e S

OA

co

nce

pt

is f

ocuse

d m

ore

on

arc

hite

ctu

re a

nd

se

rvic

es t

han

on

da

ta.

Bu

t

da

ta s

ecu

rity

is o

ne

of

the

key issu

es.

N/A

Th

e S

OA

mo

de

l is

no

t d

ire

ctly r

ela

ted

to

info

rma

tio

n,

bu

t th

ere

is n

ecessa

ry t

o w

ork

on

co

ncre

te p

roto

co

ls f

or

com

mu

nic

atio

n o

f

sin

gle

se

rvic

es.

Th

is c

ou

ld a

lso

in

clu

de

da

ta m

od

els

tra

nsfe

r o

r m

eta

da

ta.

Wo

rk h

as t

o b

e m

ain

ly f

ocuse

d o

n

on

tolo

gie

s f

or

co

ncre

te c

ases.

Th

e

on

tolo

gie

s‘ d

efin

itio

n is o

ne

of

the

ke

y

issu

es f

or

SO

A a

nd

als

o f

or

dis

trib

ute

d

pro

ce

sse

s.

Me

tho

ds

of

kn

ow

led

ge

ma

na

ge

me

nt

It c

ou

ld inclu

de

fo

rma

ts o

f d

ata

, file

s,

me

tad

ata

str

uctu

re e

tc.

Usu

ally

, th

ese

sta

nd

ard

s a

re c

om

ing

fro

m o

the

r in

itia

tive

s.

Inclu

de

da

ta m

od

els

an

d t

ran

sfe

r p

roto

co

ls.

Tra

nsfe

r p

roto

co

ls a

re u

su

ally

de

fin

ed

by

oth

er

initia

tive

s,

da

ta m

od

els

are

re

late

d t

o

co

ncre

te t

yp

es o

f a

pp

lica

tio

ns.

Kn

ow

led

ge

ma

na

ge

me

nt

inclu

de

s d

iffe

ren

t

too

ls lik

e s

ocia

l n

etw

ork

s,

con

ten

t

ma

na

ge

me

nt,

wik

is a

nd

do

cu

me

nt

ma

na

ge

me

nt

too

ls.

Str

uctu

re is d

ep

en

de

nt

on

co

ncre

te a

rea

s a

nd

ap

plic

atio

ns.

Th

ree

co

uld

be

use

d o

nto

logie

s t

o d

escri

be

co

ncre

te c

ases,

da

ta in

terr

ela

tio

n o

r fo

r

exa

mp

le R

DF

fo

r O

pe

n L

inke

d D

ata

Fin

al

SR

A

83

ICT

Re

se

arc

h d

om

ain

Da

ta-I

nfo

rma

tio

n-K

no

wle

dg

e h

iera

rch

y

Da

ta

Info

rma

tio

n

Kn

ow

led

ge

Se

ma

nti

c m

od

els

,

mu

ltil

ing

ua

lis

m,

vo

ca

bu

lari

es

an

d a

uto

ma

tic

tra

ns

lati

on

n/a

n

/a

De

finitio

n o

f vo

ca

bu

lari

es a

nd

th

esa

uru

s.

Th

is is o

ne

of

the

im

po

rta

nt

issu

es.

Th

ere

are

alr

ea

dy r

un

nin

g a

ctivitie

s lik

e

AG

RO

VO

C (

un

de

r F

AO

). T

his

pa

rt o

f

activitie

s is n

ow

pa

rtly

co

ve

red

by

ad

INF

RA

.

New

Eart

h o

bs

erv

ati

on

me

tho

ds

Th

e d

ata

sta

nd

ard

s a

re d

on

e m

ain

ly b

y

OG

C,

or

eve

ntu

ally

by E

art

h O

bse

rva

tio

n

Da

ta p

rod

uce

rs.

Sta

nd

ard

s f

or

info

rma

tio

n e

xch

an

ge

are

giv

en

by O

GC

eve

ntu

ally

by I

NS

PIR

E,

GE

OS

S,

GM

ES

an

d U

NS

DI.

It is n

ecessa

ry t

o f

ocus o

n d

ata

min

ing

me

tho

ds a

nd

to

ols

fo

r co

ncre

te a

pp

lica

tio

ns

like

pre

cis

ion

fa

rmin

g,

en

erg

y e

ffic

ien

cy,

etc

.

84

Fin

al

SR

A

ICT

Re

se

arc

h d

om

ain

Da

ta-I

nfo

rma

tio

n-K

no

wle

dg

e h

iera

rch

y

Da

ta

Info

rma

tio

n

Kn

ow

led

ge

Ma

na

ge

me

nt

an

d

ac

ce

ss

ibil

ity o

f g

eo

sp

ati

al

info

rma

tio

n

Th

e d

ata

sta

nd

ard

s a

re d

on

e m

ain

ly b

y

OG

C.

Sta

nd

ard

s f

or

info

rma

tio

n e

xch

an

ge

are

giv

en

by O

GC

eve

ntu

ally

by I

NS

PIR

E,

GE

OS

S,

GM

ES

an

d U

NS

DI.

Th

e m

ain

focus h

as t

o b

e o

n d

ata

mo

de

ls f

or

co

ncre

te c

ases.

Th

e f

ocu

s h

as t

o b

e o

n c

on

cre

te u

se

ca

se

s,

mo

de

llin

g d

escri

ptio

n, a

nd

eve

ntu

ally

on

on

tolo

gie

s f

or

co

ncre

te

ca

se

s.

Th

ere

co

uld

be

als

o a

pp

lied

me

tho

ds o

f O

pe

n L

inke

d D

ata

, so

de

fin

itio

n

of

RD

F m

od

els

will

be

im

po

rta

nt.

Op

en

da

ta a

cc

es

s

Th

e d

ata

sta

nd

ard

isa

tio

n f

or

Op

en

Da

ta

Acce

ss is d

on

e b

y e

xis

tin

g s

tan

da

rds

ma

inly

co

min

g f

rom

W3

C.

Ag

ain

th

e f

ocu

s h

as t

o b

e o

n m

eta

da

ta a

nd

de

scri

ptio

n o

f d

ata

mo

de

ls.

De

finitio

n o

f R

DF

sch

em

as f

or

co

ncre

te

Op

en

da

ta a

nd

co

ncre

te u

se

ca

se

s.

Fin

al

SR

A

85

ICT

Re

se

arc

h d

om

ain

Da

ta-I

nfo

rma

tio

n-K

no

wle

dg

e h

iera

rch

y

Da

ta

Info

rma

tio

n

Kn

ow

led

ge

Op

en

So

urc

e d

eve

lop

me

nt

N

/A

Op

en

So

urc

e is u

su

ally

de

alin

g w

ith

exis

tin

g s

tan

da

rds f

or

da

ta a

cce

ss.

Mo

st

of

the

exis

tin

g O

SS

is s

up

po

rtin

g s

tan

da

rds in

ce

rta

in a

rea

s o

f use

.

It

will

be

im

po

rta

nt

to d

efin

e d

ata

mo

de

ls,

an

d s

tru

ctu

re o

f e

xch

an

ge

d d

ata

. U

su

ally

tra

nsfe

r p

roto

co

ls a

re im

ple

me

nte

d o

n t

he

leve

l o

f O

SS

.

Th

e s

itu

atio

n is s

imila

r lik

e in

Fu

ture

Inte

rne

t ca

se

s.

Fo

cu

s h

as t

o b

e o

n b

uild

ing

of

on

tolo

gie

s lik

e m

ach

ine

ry o

nto

log

ies,

ch

em

ica

ls,

cro

ps,

anim

als

, bu

t a

lso

mo

re

co

mp

lex o

nto

log

ies r

ela

ted

to

cro

p o

r

an

ima

ls p

rod

uctio

n m

eth

od

s,

ag

ricu

ltu

re,

co

mm

erc

e o

nto

log

ies e

tc.

Op

en

So

urc

e

oft

en

de

als

with

Op

en

Da

ta o

r L

inke

d D

ata

,

so

als

o n

ecessa

ry w

ill b

e t

o d

efin

e R

DF

sch

em

as e

tc.

New

mo

de

llin

g m

eth

od

s

Da

ta f

orm

ats

are

im

po

rta

nt

for

mo

de

llin

g

too

ls,

bu

t m

od

elli

ng

as s

uch

is n

ot

mu

ch

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Final SRA 87

9.1 Conclusion from SRA for standardisation

The provided analysis demonstrates the following facts:

• On the level of data standardisation, the agri-food community will be mainly consumer of

standards coming from other domains or activities. For example activities related to Future

Internet, where intention is to design low level standards allowing developers to access data

through standardised API. Similar situation is for example with geospatial data, where

access is solved through OGC standards. Also questions like security are mainly solved

outside of the agri-food community. It is important to follow this initiative, eventually

participate on other initiatives including SmartAgriFood project in Future Internet. There are

two areas where further development is necessary inside of the community:



• More important seems to be the effort on information level. In accordance with work which

was provided in WP4 it is necessary to be focused on protocols (Web services), API and

data models for exchange of information in different areas such as traceability, precision

farming, live transport, welfare regulations, subsidies systems (for example LPIS), weather

information, market information, logistic information. It seems that for the next period the key

focus will be in this area. The work could be partly related to activities such as agroXML.

• In the future, with the expansion of Web-based technologies more effort will be necessary in

the area of knowledge level. Access to knowledge is the goal of many information systems.

It is necessary to build knowledge-based tools, which will help the user in orientation and

taking the right decision. It could be by means of ontologies, RDF schemas for open linked

data, a thesaurus or vocabularies. Such activities already exist, for example under FAO

(AGROVOC thesaurus) and different tools of knowledge management. This effort is partly

cover by the new project agINFRA.

88 Final SRA

10 Recommendations for

long-term agriXchange

sustainability

Chapter six defines five political and organisational challenges:

1. To improve the representation of ICT agriculture specialists and users in European activities.

2. To include ICT and knowledge management for agri-food and rural communities generally

as a vital part of the ICT policies and initiatives.

3. Support better transfer of RTD results and innovation into everyday life of farmers, food

industry and other rural communities.

4. To accelerate bottom up activities as a driver for local and regional development.

5. To support discussion and transfer of knowledge between developed and developing

countries.

All these challenges are also important for agriXchange long-time sustainability, but also for agri-food

standardisation. Why?

1. In any areas there exist two types of standardisation efforts:

• Community or industry driven effort. It is necessary to have structure inside the

community which will take the leadership in this area.

• Politically driven standardisation – in agri-food it could include standards for animals

welfare, food security etc. It is necessary to support related policy. Also, it is good

for policy makers to have partners on the community level.

2. For any standard it is important to transfer it to community. It is necessary to support

communication between researchers, politicians, industry and also final users. It is

necessary to transfer all knowledge to the users.

3. It is important that the requirements for standards are not defined only by politicians or

by large industry, but the standards has to cover needs of users like farmers, but also

regional and local IST developers. These communities are crucial for future success.

4. Food market is international and for example information about food traceability has to

be shared worldwide. It is important also in this area to support standards worldwide.

10.1 Challenge 1

The discussions during the SmartAgriMatics conference, but also discussions on LinkedIn,

demonstrate that it is necessary to have a better coordination of different activities related to ICT for

agriculture, but also related to standardisation. Currently there exist a lot of fragmented initiatives

with zero or only little information exchange, but also with low sustainability after the end of the

financing period. It is important to have a kind of coordination community, which will help to exchange

information, to coordinate different initiatives and to transfer experiences. Such organisations have to

Final SRA 89

be independent and open for all stakeholders. agriXchange [76] project has considered two

organisational options which could guarantee long-term sustainability of the agriXchange activities:

• Founding a new, separate organisation, that will take care of issues identified in the

agriXchange project;

• Continuing under the roof of an existing organisation within task forces, working groups etc.

Both options were in WP3. The focus was on the analyses of past activities, maintenance and

hosting of the web-based platforms and on coordination activities. On the basis of the performed

analysis, it seems not realistic to establish a new platform initiative. It is not only a question of

financing, but it is also a question of building infrastructure, human resources, etc. For this reason,

the project team recommends to move agriXchange under the umbrella of an existing organisation. It

will increase the chances for financing of future activities. As a umbrella organisation, the European

Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture (EFITA) would be most suitable. There is

necessary to think about such organisations that are independent and which could run on the basis

of membership. It is necessary to exclude an organisation like FAO or World Bank, because they are

official bodies and it will not allow broader participation. Important is to start discussion with other

running initiatives like ICT Agri and agINFR and to look for common consensus. In the case, that

EFITA will take such responsibility, there will be necessary to make changes in the structure of

EFITA to make the direct participation easier for industries and individuals (not only through national

networks) and to make EFITA more operational. In principle, moving the agriXchange initiative and

network under the EFITA umbrella could be a win-win strategy and could benefit both initiatives. Past

experiences on Linked-In demonstrated that there is a willingness to cooperate on different topics,

e.g. on the Strategic Research Agenda outlined by agriXchange project agriXchange. During the last

project period new working groups started to be formed and currently there are working groups for

Open Data Access and Sensors as well as for cooperation with developing countries have been

established. To collaborate with EFITA brings in this direction, it could help to bring also the

advantage to have a body, which could be a partner for the

the advantage to have a European body, representing the ICT Agri-food sector, which could be an

interesting partner for the European Commission and other policy actors.., in particular for Initiatives

such as the European Innovation Partnership.

10.2 Challenge 2

As it was already mentioned, there is a lot of standardisation needs among public bodies and farmers

or food industry. There is important role of public sector and also European Commission. Currently

ICT for agri-food sector is not covered by any policies and also there is no direct support for such

activities. The topic is addressed by different Directorates General (DGs) (Agriculture, Connect,

Research, JRC, Health, Regio), but none of the DGs covers this issue fully. It is important to include

these topics as part of European priorities and also as part of Horizon 2020. Also from this reason it

is important to have strong representative of community, which will provide lobbing for this.

On the worldwide level part of these activities are covered by FAO. Due to existing gap between FAO

and worldwide community, it is necessary to improve cooperation. There could help from the

agINFRA project, where FAO is a partner.

10.3 Challenge 3

Any RTD results and also results of standardisation has to be transferred into practice to local and

regional users. As it was mentioned in chapter 4, there is usually low sustainability of projects, low

90 Final SRA

transfer of information and also re-use. Here probably could help the agINFRA project, which has

objective to build infrastructure for sharing agriculture information.

10.4 Challenge 4

From the request coming from the end users and for better transfer and better innovation in rural

regions it will be useful to support open innovation initiatives in rural regions. Similar with running

initiative Smart Cities will be good to introduce concept of “Smart Rural Regions”. This idea was

already discussed by agriXchange project on Linked-In network with positive feedback.

10.5 Challenge 5

As it was already mentioned, the problem of standardisation in agri-food sector is worldwide. It is

necessary to support standardisation cooperation also worldwide. In some areas like machinery the

cooperation already exists on industrial basis, but in many areas there is no organisation or bodies

dealing with this problem. FAO and the International Network for Information Technology in

Agriculture (INFITA) could play an important role. INFITA is a roof organisation connecting EFITA

with similar organisations in America, Asia and Oceania (Africa is till now inactive).

Final SRA 91

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Final SRA 93

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94 Final SRA


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d5.2 agri xchange final sra_final

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