AIOTI ALLIANCE FOR INTERNET OF THINGS INNOVATION

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1 AIOTI WG06 Feedback to Digitising European Industry WG2 Strengthening Leadership in Digital Technologies and in Digital Industrial Platforms across Value Chains in all Sectors of the Economy Smart Agriculture sub-group Version November 2016 What is this Report about, in short The present report is the first reply of AIOTI WG06 to the questions posed by the Smart Agriculture sub-group of DEI WG2 on digital industrial platforms. 1. Current landscape of activities in Europe A large, dynamic and promising ecosystem of companies is flourishing around the new paradigm of data services for farming. However, future growth of this ecosystem might be hampered by the high degree of existing fragmentation, in general, regarding common platforms. In any case, there are initiatives in the domains of data capture, sharing, and management that are taking an approach of coordinated platform development to avoid such fragmentation. The listing provided in the present document is by no means intended to be exhaustive, but just a sample of representative initiatives. On-going H2020 projects are not considered in the listing either. Regional and national initiatives In the regional/national domain, initiatives coordinated by regional/national governments are arising around the concepts of smart farming and food safety. In particular, the creation of data platforms is one of the topics capturing most attention recently. Name Scope Link Short description Hightech farming Tuscany (Italy) europa.eu/documents/2 0182/183310/Tuscany.p df/70146a f9- aa4b-0de1b904fe41 Smart precision farming initiative proposed recently by the Tuscany region within the framework of the Smart Specialisation Platform in Agri-Food. The initiative is in the process of launching 1 Restricted

2 Traceabil ity and big data PRIMARE SIAR Network Andalusi a (Spain) Galicia (Spain) Spain europa.eu/documents/2 0182/183310/Andalusia. pdf/ d-66a d d90c34c cpti gob.es/websiar/inicio.as px and looking for partner regions around Europe. Initiative for the exploitation of data throughout the whole agri-food chain, proposed recently by the Andalusia region within the framework of the Smart Specialisation Platform in Agri- Food. As the Tuscany initiative, it is in the process of launch and looking for partner regions. Public Procurement of Innovation initiative set out by the Galician government, consisting in building a regional data platform for capturing and managing CAP subsidies data. The initiative is still in procurement phase. Agroclimatic information system deployed by the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture for the estimation of crop irrigation needs. The system consists currently of more than 300 sensing stations nation-wide and an open web system for accessing the data. The network started building in the early 2000s. International initiatives Large initiatives can be found in the international landscape, with support from both entities in the private and public sector. A common factor of such initiatives is the importance of data as a driver for efficiency, sustainability and business creation. Name Scope Link Short description Agricultural Industry Electronics Foundation (AEF) Global AEF is an alliance of more than 100 companies, initially focused on developing ISOBUS (standard protocol for communication between implements, tractors and computers). It addresses now, among other topics, Farm Management Information Systems Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN) as well. Global GODAN is an initiative supporting the proactive sharing of open data to make information about 2 Restricted

3 agriculture and nutrition available, accessible and usable, currently with over 400 partners from national governments, nongovernmental, international and private sector organisations. FIspace EU FIspace is a business-to-business (B2B) horizontal collaboration platform based on FI-WARE technologies. Several pilot projects in the agri-food platform have been built over FIspace. Cooperatives Data platforms and services by cooperatives or their technology subsidiaries are highly relevant for the landscape analysis, as they are really close to the end users (farmers), thus the developed platforms (B2B, B2C) are very much focused on their immediate needs. Potentially, many good lessons can be learned from these initiatives, which often are not in touch with EU innovation networks. Name Scope Link Short description LILA Virtual Community Asturias (Spain) v.com Launched in 2008 as an initiative by LILA, a company owned by the dairy farmers and dairy industry in the region of Asturias. The platform shares data about milk analysis results with the farmers. The platform is currently in use by Netfarming SMAG Primarily in Germany Primarily in France rming.de/ -group.com/en 2000 farmers in Asturias. Suite of farm management applications provided by Netfarming, a subsidiary company from AGRAVIS ( an agricultural trade and services company owned by German cooperatives. Suite of farm management applications provided by SMAG, a company group participated by INVIVO, one of the largest French agricultural cooperatives. The SMAG solutions pay special attention to data ownership aspects. 3 Restricted

4 Commercial services Some providers of commercial solutions, traditionally built on proprietary systems and architectures, are making their systems more open, compatible and accessible to third parties. This quite recent trend is gaining momentum. Name Link Short description 365FarmNet Open platform for linking together applications com/en/ and services of different manufacturers and MyJohnDeer e PLM Connect Microsoft s Azure re.com/ com/ service providers (partners of 365FarmNet). Farm Management Information System with open API provided by Agricultural machine manufacturer John Deere. A number of other Farm Management Information System providers are compatible, e.g.: Farm Management Information and Decision System with open API provided by Agricultural machine manufacturer New Holland. Although not strictly a platform, it is relevant to consider Azure in this listing since it is gaining momentum as a support service for commercial products in the agri-food domain. A number of EU companies are offering commercial services for farmers built on Azure cloud services, e.g.: Restricted

5 2. Where do we want to go? AIOTI Agriculture faces several long-term global challenges at a global scale: increase food production with lower environmental footprint, while ensuring the highest standards of food safety and boosting the development of rural economy. Future digital platforms for agriculture should be instruments for effectively addressing the above challenges, leveraging on the use of data, which is increasingly available in the agri-food sector (in food production processes, but also in the next stages of the food value chain). The following aspects are essential for building such platforms. 1. Connectivity is the first pre-condition for building successful digital platforms. Basic ICT infrastructures must provide sufficient connectivity (particularly in rural areas), as well as safe data transmission and storage. 2. Open data and data sharing will play a key role in future agriculture 1, enabling more efficient and effective decision making through data aggregation and data analysis from multiple sources and multiple parties (e.g. combining raw data with agronomic models and other data provided by third parties), and bringing more transparency to the whole food chain allowing consumers to make more informed decisions, paving the way to effective Agriculture Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS). 3. Interoperability and standardisation are basic pillars for success: a. Interoperability must be considered from several dimensions: from low-level device communication (sensors, implements, ) to data exchange protocols (e.g. among machines and applications) and semantic data models (e.g. to allow the combination of different data sources). b. Currently, the common situation is that tools and applications from different vendors are not interoperable, even if international standardisation initiatives exist (not only in the agri-food domain). c. The need for interoperable, standardised data models is particularly important, not only in the context of open data. If, for instance, an inter-company inter-crop platform is to be developed, a common data model and semantic organization of information is needed. 4. Trust and security: a. When valuable data is at stake, it is fundamental that the stakeholders trust the system and benefit from it. For instance, not all data should be openly shared to the public nor to all stakeholders due to its sensitivity. In farming applications, the farmers and the other stakeholders must have tools to guarantee data ownership and control over their data, so that the right balance between ownership and openness can be provided. COPA-COGECA, for instance, have put forward principles underpinning the exchange of agri data 2. b. Data provenance and authenticity are also essential in a number of applications: food traceability/safety, insurances, subsidies management, etc. 1 Open Data Institute, How can we improve agriculture, food and nutrition with open data?, COPA-COGECA, Main principles underpinning the collection, use and exchange of agricultural data, September Restricted

6 c. Trust and security requirements clearly call for new regulations, but also for new digital rights management tools that must be readily available and usable in future agri-food data platforms. Those above are key pillars for enabling data-driven business models in agriculture. It is essential that the future digital platforms fit the needs of small-sized agriculture holdings and agri-food processing industries, which represent the vast majority in EU. 6 Restricted

7 3. How do we bridge the gap between what we have and what we want to achieve? Efforts must be put in place to harmonize data architectures and data models, taking into account the existing standardisation initiatives and relevant on-going EU projects, such as the Large Scale Pilot set out to start in early Currently there is a number of initiatives from the private sector to use data already available (weather prediction, CAP public information, public GIS data and satellites). Much of them are being developed without umbrella platforms that can assure future interoperability between different tools and devices. In parallel, high-level discussions to agree on a common set of principles for trust and security in agri-food data platforms should be arranged. In both cases, the discussions should involve representatives from the relevant on-going initiatives and projects, as well as other key stakeholders (see answer to question #4 below). Besides the initiatives to create interoperable and secure agri-food platforms for the use of data and tools, there should be clear efforts to provide as well high quality open data in easyto-access systems, for instance hyperspectral satellite imagery, CAP-disclosed data, GIS information, Eurostat information, data from weather stations, etc. that could boost the development of data-driven agriculture. In addition, it would be beneficial to provide easy access to neutral experimentation and validation infrastructures (Open Living Labs) for testing developments (big data tools, data acquisition tools, security mechanisms, etc.). This would help to test and understand more clearly the benefits from digital technologies in agriculture, thus accelerating the adoption of digital platforms. 7 Restricted

8 4. Who are the main stakeholders to be involved? Existing PPPs can contribute to the agri-food platform building efforts in a number of ways. In general, more involvement of the agri-food sector in those initiatives is needed, probably promoting its inclusion as a vertical sector (or integrating it in the vertical structure that some of the PPPs already have). Specific action lines for each PPP could include the following. PPP Big Data PPP Factories of the Future PPP 5G PPP Cyber Security PPP Action line Apply the Innovation Spaces (I-Spaces) approach to the farming sector, for providing experimentation environments that can help to understand more clearly the benefits of big data in agriculture, thus accelerating its adoption. Agri-food industries should play a relevant role as a vertical sector in the FoF PPP. The food and drink industry, according to Eurostat, is the largest manufacturing sector in EU. Prioritising this sector in the SRIA of the FoF PPP would guarantee a big positive impact in EU economy. Inclusion of agriculture as a priority vertical sector for the 5G PPP would help to ensure that future connectivity requirements for farming applications are properly met (the number of IoT devices/sensors in rural areas will need to increase in the following years) Inclusion of agriculture as a priority vertical sector would pose use cases that in turn would act as drivers of security technologies for improving platform trust and data security, including sharing, ownership, provenance AIOTI could play a relevant role collaborating with the PPPs primarily through its WG06 on smart farming and food security, but also through WG03 (standardisation) and WG04 (policies) on the horizontal issues of interoperability and standardization, trust and security. A large amount of digital technologies take-up in the farming sector will be happening under national or regional initiatives (and thus in a smaller, more fragmented scale than in EU initiatives). Hence, Member States should actively participate in the discussions for setting the principles of interoperable and secure data platforms. Moreover, they could play a decisive role in the wide adoption of those platforms by putting into place measures such as: Facilitating and promoting access to high-quality open data: deploying public sensing networks, public data transmission and storage infrastructure, maintaining public databases with agro data, etc. Providing access to experimentation and validation environments. The Member States can facilitate much of the technology take-up through public investments of Structural Funds or other funding sources. On one hand we have the EARDF (European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development), implementing the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), part of which must be invested in innovation for enhancing the competitiveness of the primary sector. Such funds are managed by regional or national authorities, who design and implement investment programmes. In regions which have identified agri-food priorities in 8 Restricted

9 their Smart Specialization Strategies (RIS3 plans), measures for can be also supported by ERDF funds (European Regional Development Fund), that can be used for implementing Public Procurement of Innovation (PPI) initiatives. Interestingly, regions with agri-food priorities identified in their RIS3 strategies can add to the recent S3 agri-food smart specialization platform 3, which is in its initial phase and seeks to better coordinate and optimise efforts in EU regions with agri-food innovation priorities, for instance aligning EIP AGRI Operational Groups or launching coordinated multi-regional projects. Last, but not least, the role of end users must be stressed: all the relevant users in the food value chain must be involved from the very beginning in agri-food platform design and validation, specially farmers, farming trade associations, cooperatives and their representatives (e.g. COPA-COGECA at EU level). Such strong involvement pursues mainly two objectives: 1) ensure that requirements for digital platforms are successfully met; 2) to not reinvent the wheel, learning as most as possible from successful platform initiatives set out by cooperatives (see answer above to question #1). Hands-on experience proves that successful initiatives go hand in hand with close interaction with the farmers, which belong to a sector that traditionally has been away from digital technologies, and thus needs a clear demonstration of the benefits of digital innovations, as well as training in digital skills to be confident on the use of the new technologies. 3 Agri-Food Smart Specialisation Platform: 9 Restricted

10 Editor Luis Pérez Freire, AIOTI WG06 Chairman Contributors Marcos Álvarez Díaz, Gradiant, Spain COPA-COGECA, Belgium Pablo Jalón Monzón, LILA Asturias, Spain 10 Restricted