AGRIXCHANGE

A common data exchange system for agricultural systems

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'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 standardization, which hampers efficient exchange of information. This leads to inefficient business processes and hampers adoption of new knowledge and technology. Especially, the exchange of information at whole chain or network level is poorly organized. 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 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 harmonizing 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. The project consortium consists of 14 partners from 11 countries covering different disciplines, stakeholder views and experiences with information management and standardization.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

Meeting future food demands will put pressure on producers and distributors. A new information system ensures they can face up to the challenges.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

With global population increases unlikely to level off, the demand for food production is already unprecedented and will continue to increase. This will put intense pressure on agricultural industries and associated sectors such as retail and logistics. Meeting the coming challenges will require coordination and up to date information, both of which are currently lacking.

'A common data exchange system for agricultural systems' (AGRIXCHANGE) is an EU-project established to address these needs.

AGRIXCHANGE is a diverse consortium comprised of academic institutions, farmers and agribusiness companies. It aims to develop new ways of sharing information and expertise in order to make agribusiness more sustainable, efficient and economical.

The project's key activity has been a comprehensive analysis of the information exchange capacity among EU Member States, plus Switzerland. It found an expected wide variability in organisation and communication, ranging from essentially none to highly sophisticated, but also several consistent trends. These included an ageing population of farmers, which means lack of adaptation to communications technologies. This means a need for improved telecommunications/data infrastructure in rural areas. There is also the potential for developing countries to skip outdated infrastructure and go directly to advanced mobile systems.

A second key activity has been the development of a reference framework. Central to this is the new aXtool, intended to incorporate the reference framework design into existing AGRIXCHANGE structures. It is a content-management system designed to strictly guide the contribution of information while also making that information easy to share. Further fostering information exchange, AGRIXCHANGE developed a http://www.agrixchange.eu/ (web platform) containing information about the project, which also facilitates collaboration on various standards and issues of the project. A LinkedIn group also helps discussion.

Project members hosted four workshops, embedded in well-attended broader conferences, allowing productive collaboration with other EU projects and other related organisations. In addition, AGRIXCHANGE is collaborating with various European standardisation organisations, facilitating contact with global standards organisations. These efforts have resulted in good progress towards a standardised system for European agriculture. With that in place, European organisations may be better equipped to work together to provide the extra food capacity that will soon be needed.