Open-Source Tools and Supports to Advance Data Interoperability in the Agriculture Domain

Increased use of digital and data technologies in agriculture holds the potential to enhance efficiency at various stages of food production. Better measurement and data usage can lead to better management. However, several obstacles remain in place for increased collaboration and information-sharing between different actors in the agri-food supply chain. Alongside business and trust issues, technical barriers are also evident with various digital technologies deployed across the naturally heterogeneous landscape of different agri-food supply chains. While several projects and initiatives address data interoperability and provide central locations for hosting agri-data, the sharing and deeper analysis of combined data sets remains low. The contributions of this paper, therefore, are to: review existing approaches to interoperability and currently available agri data spaces; provide a use-case where data providers and data consumers collaborate on a data sharing project; and, offer a resulting suite of practical tools and supports to increase data interoperability and sharing in the agriculture domain.