Opening Data, Information and Knowledge for Agricultural Development

Ajit MaruGFAR Secretariat, Rome

Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR)

http:/www.egfar.org

Agenda

• India’s Agricultural Development Challenges• India’s choices for agricultural information

and knowledge services• Challenges of Agricultural Information and

Knowledge Management in India• The Global Movement in Open Agricultural

Data, Information and Knowledge• Benefits of Open Data and Information• CIARD and GODAN• CIARD Sevices• ICAR and CIARD

India’s Agricultural Development Challenges

Highly Competitive Markets Climate Change

Diminishing Access to Natural Resources and

Rising Energy and Fossil Fuel Costs

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Loss of Agro-BiodiversityAdequately feed its population

Safe, nutritious, quality food

Produce Industrial FeedstockFor Agro-Industries

Generate Employmentespecially for Educated

Youth in Rural Areas

India’s Agricultural Development Challenges

Highly Competitive Markets Climate Change

Diminishing Access to Natural Resources and

Rising Energy and Fossil Fuel Costs

Rapi

d Sp

read

of

Tran

s-Bo

unda

ry D

iseas

es

And

Pest

s

Loss of Agro-BiodiversityAdequately feed its population

Safe, nutritious, quality food

Produce Industrial FeedstockFor Agro-Industries

Generate Employmentespecially for Educated

Youth in Rural Areas

India to meet these challenges needs to make its agriculture more knowledge intensive and India to meet these challenges needs to make its

agriculture more knowledge intensive and knowledge based.

It has to recognize that information and knowledge are now critical inputs for entire agri-food chains that can

leverage the use of other farm inputs and for participating in competitive markets for agricultural products.

India’s choices for agricultural information and knowledge services

Proprietary SystemsOffering commercial

Information and KnowledgeServices

“Open” SystemsEnabling a variety of P-P-C

Partnership basedInformation and Knowledge

Services

Options In Between

India’s choices for agricultural information and knowledge services

• For various reasons, India cannot afford purely proprietary and for profit information and knowledge services.

• India has to opt for systems that are a continuation of the current trajectory of “open” information and knowledge systems.

Challenges of Agricultural Information and Knowledge Management in India

• India already has many of the fundamental requirements for “Open” Information Systems such as policies and infrastructure.

• India agricultural information systems face challenges in:– Generating useful, relevant, timely, trustworthy content for

its agricultural systems that are smallholder based– Integration of Information and Information Systems– Security of Information Systems– Property rights for data and information– Enabling effective use of data and information in the entire

agri-food chain and especially in farming communities

Challenges of Agricultural Information and Knowledge Management in India

• India faces critical challenges for content in:– Availability, – Accessibility – Applicability – Affordability– Appropriation of information content by user

communities

The Global Movement in Open Agricultural Data, Information and Knowledge

• Growing Global movement for “Open Governments” which includes India

• Open availability and access to government and publicly funded programs data and information is a basic tenet of the open government model

• Open availability and access enables rapid innovation and development and creates huge potential for knowledge services that can generate employment and livelihoods

The Global Movement in Open Agricultural Data, Information and Knowledge

Major International Actors in Agricultural Development, World Bank, UNO including FAO, CGIAR and GFAR follow open data and information policies and open data models for their data and information management

Benefits of Open Data and Information

• New information and knowledge to be generated• Localize globally available information and knowledge and enable it to be

used more effectively• Increase efficiency and effectiveness of research and its outputs and

innovation in time, cost, quality and human effort• Reduce reinvention and repetition of research efforts • Allow greater inclusiveness and participation in research and innovation• Bring cross-disciplinary and specialized skills to agricultural research and for

innovation• Reduce “market failure” or inability to use research outputs effectively

and/or efficiently• Create new research directions and avenues• Bring greater equity in using agricultural knowledge across and among

communities

Benefits of Open Data and Information

IMD

ISRO

Weather and Climate

Geo-spatialGPS

NRSAGround and Surface WaterVegetationSoil

NSS

PopulationDemographyCensusEconomic

Environmental Agencies

Air QualityWater QualityLand Pollution

ICAR/Agricultural Ministries And departments/ SAUs

Plant GeneticsFertilizerWater consumptionIrrigationLand useAgronomic PracticesDiseases and PestsCrop YieldsSoil DataDocuments

Trade andCommerce

Ministry

Markets

National, State, DistrictTaluk, Block, Farm, Field

Plot level data and information

Biotic PropertiesInteractions

Farming Conditions

Management of Agri-foodChains in India

CIARD and GODAN

• CIARD Movement advocates, build capacities, facilitates sharing, exchange of information and collaboration in development of information systems as also provides a platform to discuss information flows related to agricultural research, innovation and development.

• Major international actors in agricultural development including the FAO, GFAR, CGIAR, CTA, CABI, DFID, MAE of France, CIRAD along with several others have evolved CIARD as a global movement.

• Recently a high level advocacy platform the Global Open Data for Agricultural and Nutrition (GODAN) has been initiated by USA and Great Britain through the G8 and G20 group of countries.

• Many of the CIARD actors are also members of GODAN.

CIARD SERVICES

• Checklists and Good Practices• Pathways• CIARD RING• AIMS • agINFRA • AgriVIVO• Agrifeeds

CIARD RING

• The CIARD Routemap to Information Nodes and Gateways (RING) is a global directory of web-based services that will give access to any kind of information sources pertaining to agricultural research for development (ARD).

• The RING aims to provide an infrastructure to improve the accessibility of the outputs of agricultural research and of information relevant to ARD management.

• There are more than 490 Institutional members providing more than 1000 information services and 290 data sets of the CIARD.RING.

ICAR and CIARD

• The ICAR has officially permitted its Institutions and Programs to be part of the CIARD movement

• At the Institution level, the partnership with CIARD is not well demonstrated. It is below par compared to other major national and International agricultural research and development systems

• India can both benefit and contribute to the CIARD movement

• The global community waits eagerly in anticipation for India to be a leader in this area.

Thank You

ajit.maru@fao.org