Join TRAINING Course and SYMPOSIUM on Farmers' ACCESS to DATA in Johannesburg !

GFAR has convened a SYMPOSIUM ON FARMERS' RIGHTS TO DATA to be held in Johannesburg on 24 November 2017. Register here to participate in the Symposium !

The symposium follows a Training Course on Access to Data held in the preceding 4 days. There are still 5 slots available for participating in the training : Register here !

Issues around farmers’ rights to data, both in terms of access to data and ownership of data, are crucial to one of the key areas of activity of GFAR: the opening of access to information systems for sharing, transforming and using agricultural knowledge, especially in light of GFAR’s overall approach to putting the smallholder farmer at the centre of innovation and seeking change in their lives.

During the Symposium, the panel discussions chaired by the keynote speakers will be animated by participants in the training course that will have taken place in the preceding days.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS 

Ajit Maru, Ph.D., with professional career in agricultural sector spanning almost 40 years.  At the moment he is working on developing a single window platform to support small holder farmers of Gujarat, India, in their farming and participation in markets.

Jeremy De Beer is a Full Professor of law at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law, where he creates and shapes ideas—about technology innovation, intellectual property, and global trade and development.

Dan Berne is an independent consultant working at the nexus of water, food and energy. He is an expert in standards development, business processes, market development and customer experience strategies.

More information and the detailed program of the symposium will be published in the next days on the GFAR portal.

The Training Course on Access to Data is targeted to farmers and farmers’ associations’ representatives as well as other actors that have an intermediary role in the farm data value chain, like extension agents, advisors and providers of farm management information systems.  

TRAINERS :

Dan Berne from Logom Ag Initiative (United States)

Stephen Kalyesubula from iLabs@Mak Project of Makerere University (Uganda)

Nicolene Fourie from the Earth Observation Science & Information Technology of CSIR (South Africa)

Anneliza Collett from the Land Use and Soil Management Directorate of the DAFF (South Africa)

Nov 20 - Day 1 Morning

Nov 20 - Day 1 Afternoon

Nov 21 - Day 2 Morning

Introductions (Welcome, Goals, Intros, Logistics)

Agenda Review

What do we mean by agricultural data

Trends driving digital agricultural data

From data to knowledge; FAIR principles

Discussion

Existing data services for farmers (especially in Africa)

Availability and usability of key data for farmers

 

Exercise: Crop Planning

Use of data in farm management information systems (FMIS) / precision irrigation (including weather data)

Round Table Discussion

 

Nov 21 -  Day 2 afternoon

Nov 22 - Day 3 morning

Nov 22 - Day 3 afternoon

Data legal issues and Data Ownership

Data rights in Agriculture

Discussion

 

Case Studies of South African data tools.

Overview of existing FMIS

Questions/Discussion: What Works; what is missing?

 

Digital Agriculture in the Value Chain

Explanation of Exercise

Break Out Group Work

Report Back

Conclusions

Nov 23 - Day 4 afternoon

Nov 24 - Day 5

 

Final Q&A session, discussions, summary of key challenges for farmers and for intermediaries

Symposium

 

These events are co-funded by GODAN and CTA and is organized by ITOCA.

Source: GFAR 

P.S. "It’s Time for a Revolution in Data Access"!