Preliminary proceedings of the First International Conference on Farmer-centric On-Farm Experimentation (OFE) are now available including Editorial and introductory talks, Policy recommendations and the Pre-conference Webinars.

The  #OFE2021 conference, organised by INRAE-#DigitAg and the International Society of Precision Agriculture, On-Farm Experimentation Community (ISPA OFE-C), took place from 13 to 15 October 2021 online and in-person in Montpellier, France.

#OFE2021 was conducted in a hybrid format, including one day dedicated to a workshop to develop policy propositions, and was preceded by a round of four webinars in May 2021 on four major themes for OFE including:

• People and processes,
• Value creation,
• Data and analytics,
• And Policy linkages

About 170 participants attended the conference, (40 people in Montpellier and 140 on-line) including researchers and representatives from farmers’ associations, start-ups, NGOs, and policy makers. Attendees represented 36 countries including 54% from Europe, 16% from North America, 8% from South America, 8% from Asia, 8% from Africa and 6% from Oceania.

The conference was structured around invited speakers addressing the four major themes, as well as researchers who answered a call for paper and short video presentations. A total of 80 submissions were selected, made available online, with a selection also presented during plenaries that showcased OFE activities and projects worldwide. This material, in addition to that of invited speakers, demonstrated the existence of a very rich and diversified scientific production. The three best conference papers were awarded by the Scientific Committee.

These available #OFE2021 Proceedings gather 190 items: 64 papers, 63 video presentations and 63 short video presentations. Specific outcomes also include a manifesto for OFE, guidelines for data analytics and policy recommendations to support OFE. A virtual special issue of the Agronomy for Sustainable Development journal is also being produced as a spin-off.

The organization wishes to thank the Co-operative Research Programme (CRP): Sustainable Agricultural and Food Systems of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Agropolis Foundation, #DigitAg, the Occitanie Region, Montpellier University of Excellence (MAK’IT), Occitanum, Agreenium, RMT Modelia and RMT NAEXUS, INRAE (MathNum & AgroEcosystem Departments) for their financial support to the conference.