Tractors, tilling equipment, planters, sprayers and harvesters are increasingly connected to the Internet, but farmers don’t always have the ability to precisely control where that data goes, nor transfer it from one data processor to another. The newly formed Agricultural Data Coalition will empower farmers to better control, manage and maximize the value of the data they collect in the field.

The goal of the Agricultural Data Coalition is to build a data repository where farmers can securely store and oversee the data collected.

How are you storing your farm data? Agricultural Data Coaltion hopes to create data repository. (Photo: givaga/Thinkstock)

Over time, that data can be scrubbed, synced and transmitted to third parties-whether they be input providers, farm managers, researchers, crop insurance agents or government officials.

“The key is that farmers are in complete control, and they decide who is allowed access to their data,” said Matt Bechdol, ADC executive director. “This is not about profit for others, it’s about streamlining data management, establishing clear lines of control and helping growers utilize their data in ways that ultimately benefit them.”

“Farmers must retain ownership and control of the private agricultural data that originates from the work they do in their fields,” said Zippy Duvall, American Farm Bureau Federation president. “Harnessing that proprietary information for field-level efficiency and effectiveness is the key that will unlock more profitability and the greater adoption of precision agriculture. That’s good for business and the environment, too.” 

Bechdol describes ADC’s platform as a bank.

“Farmers deposit their asset into a secure location,” he said. “They manage that asset through the equivalent of an online banking system and then just like an ATM or an online transaction, ADC is able to transmit the data on the farmer’s behalf wherever the farmer wishes.”

Few farmers are maximizing their data today because the marketplace lacks a central repository like the one ADC is developing, Bechdol said.

The ADC is the result of years of planning and coordination by AGCO, the American Farm Bureau Federation, Auburn University, CNH Industrial, Crop IMS, The Ohio State University, Mississippi State University, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Raven Industries, and Topcon Positioning Group.

Source: AFBF, Agricultural Data Coalition