Agricultural Data Interest Group (IGAD) at RDA, March 2015

Interest Group on Agricultural Data

The Agricultural Data Interest Group (IGAD) is a domain oriented interest group to work on all issues related to data important for the development of global agriculture. The interest group aims to represent all stakeholders producing, managing, aggregating, sharing and consuming data for agricultural research and innovation. This interest group aims to promote good practices in the research domain: data sharing policies, data management plan, data interoperability. The chief benefit is that the IG provides a platform to share experiences and paves the way for a number of domain specific working groups to make precise proposals for solution in specific areas.  IGAD provides visibility to research and work in Agriculture Data as a platform to liaise and form actively involved groups that would work together to achieve data interoperability.

Goals

  • To promote good practices in the research domain: data sharing policies, data management plan, data interoperability.
  • To provide a platform for networking and cross-fertilization of research ideas in data management and interoperability
  • To solicit and promote interactions and projects among the major international institutions and groups worldwide which work on agricultural research and innovation. 
  • To achieve Data interoperability

Till P4

IGAD has grown from its inception at the RDA Gothenburg, Sweden to include a good number of members from different continents.  IGAD at P4 had an interesting array of participants and discussions including Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN) initiative introduction, Global Agricultural Concept Scheme (GACS) report, CIARD Ring global registry of datasets and a knowledge fair offered by European commission project agINFRA partners. The Wheat Data Interoperability working group initiated under IGAD reported the progress working towards a cookbook intended for wheat data managers community. The cookbook intends to bring out guidelines on metadata, vocabularies, ontologies and file format recommendations to achieve data interoperability.

At RDA5

It is the aim to take forward the work of IGAD till RDA P4 to reach out to more groups to collaborate, liaise and work together towards innovation and effective exploitation of agricultural data at RDA P5. IGAD aims to bring together world wide initiatives and projects to present ideas and discuss issues related to agricultural data. The Wheat Data Interoperability working group will present its first outcomes and some follow up actions. Important initiatives and organizations such as GODAN, CIARD, CGIaR, UNFAO, CYMMIT among others will be represented who will also make presentations regarding ongoing research work and projects.  IGAD also solicits interest of the community in proposing  new working groups related to agricultural data. 

Agenda Session I: Agricultural Data Initiatives

9th March 2015 

From 14:00 to 15:30

  1. Introduction for newcomers (5m)
  2. Enabling Global Solutions for Agricultural and Nutrition Challenges through Linked Open Data: LOD for development (15m), Chris Kollen, University of Arizona Libraries, United States
  3. Introducing the GODAN Secretariat (15m), GODAN Secretariat
  4. Use case : Development of Agricultural scientific data sharing System in China (15m), Dr. Zhang Xuefu, Agricultural Information Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), China
  5. Use case : Development of Data Integration & Analysis System in Japan  (15m) , Dr. Seishi Ninomiya, Institute for Sustainable Agro-ecosystem Services, University of Tokyo, Japan
  6. Use case: Research Data Management at IFPRI (15m) ,  Dr. Luz Marina Alvare, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), United States
  7. Use case: Connecting Agricultural Data through an Open and Participatory Data Infrastructure, AgINFRA (15m), Valeria Pesce, Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR), Italy

Agenda Session II: Good Practices towards opening data in agriculture

9th March 2015 

From 16:00 to 17:30

  1. Last CIARD Developments (5m), Imma Subirats, FAO of the United Nations (Italy)
  2. AGRIS open data developments (15m), Dr. Zhang Xuefu, Agricultural Information Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), China
  3. Update on the RING as a global registry of datasets (15m), Valeria Pesce, Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR), Italy
  4. GACS developments (15m), Cynthia Parr, National Agricultural Library (NAL), United States Department of Agriculture
  5. AGRIPROFILES: Linking Agricultural Professionals around the Globe (15m), Federico Sancho, Instituto Interamericano de Cooperación para la Agricultura (IICA), Costa Rica
  6. Wheat Data Interoperability Group : Cookbook and last developments (15m), Esther Dzale, French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA), France & Richard Fulss, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Mexico
  7. New Topics and Projects (5m)
  8. Conclusions (5m)

Contact Person: Imma Subirats Coll

Co-chairs: Devika Madalli, Johannes Keizer, Imma Subirats Coll