May 15, 2017
Pioneering evidence-based, data-driven agriculture on a global scale through a platform designed for multifaceted data utilization, anticipating the use of big data
Leveraging Japan's characteristic of achieving high-value-added agriculture based on experience and intuition, data-driven agriculture will be pioneered on a global scale through a data collaboration platform established via industry-government-academia collaboration.
1. Background
With the societal advancement of IoT and AI, attention is being drawn to evidence-based initiatives that utilize data. While Japanese agriculture has historically produced a variety of delicious agricultural products based on farmers' long-standing experience and intuition, it has become difficult to learn this knowledge, which is at risk of being lost due to an aging population. Furthermore, as data accumulation has not progressed, there has been a growing demand for evidence-based, data-driven agriculture and new agricultural ICT initiatives.
By converting information on crop growth, field environments, and farmers' experience and intuition into data, it is expected that young farmers will be able to acquire this knowledge more quickly. Furthermore, comparing and analyzing this data can provide farmers with new insights, leading to improved productivity and business management. Data utilization is therefore essential for leveraging the strengths of Japanese agriculture.
To achieve this, it is necessary to overcome the current situation where various companies offer different ICT services that operate in silos. A data collaboration platform is required to enable cooperation between different services and systems, breaking down the barriers between vendors and manufacturers.
2. Establishment of the Agricultural Data Collaboration Platform (Data Platform)
Based on the situation described above, we will establish the "Agricultural Data Collaboration Platform (Data Platform)" to pioneer and promote new, evidence-based, data-driven agriculture for the big data era on a global scale.
(1) To launch the Agricultural Data Collaboration Platform (Data Platform) and develop data-driven agriculture, a consortium will be established with the participation of diverse stakeholders from the agricultural sector, including ICT vendors, agricultural machinery manufacturers, research institutions, farmers, and agricultural organizations.
(2) The Agricultural Data Collaboration Platform will be built on a public cloud. In addition to enabling data linkage between different systems across vendor and manufacturer barriers, it will aggregate various agriculture-related information from public agencies and data on research results from public research institutions on the platform, making them available as open or paid data.
(3) By the end of 2017, we will begin operating a prototype of the "Agricultural Data Collaboration Platform," primarily targeting agricultural production sites. Utilizing this prototype, various participating entities, such as farmers and agricultural organizations, will conduct model projects for system linkage and data utilization. This will serve to verify the effectiveness of evidence-based, data-driven agriculture and is expected to lead to the provision of new services for farmers.
(4) In the future, in addition to its use at production sites, we plan to expand collaborative efforts to cover the entire chain from distribution to consumption. We will promote the participation of a wide range of entities and develop these initiatives while deepening collaboration with stakeholders.
For details on the Agricultural Data Collaboration Platform (Data Platform), please see Agricultural Data Collaboration Platform (Data Platform).pdf .
* This press release is jointly announced by the Cabinet Office, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and participating organizations of the Agricultural Data Collaboration Platform (Data Platform).
[Inquiries regarding this press release]
Junji Kaminari Research Group, Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, Keio University
kaminari-core@sfc.keio.ac.jp
[Distributed by]
Office of Research Development and Sponsored Projects at Shonan Fujisawa Campus, Keio University
kri-pr@sfc.keio.ac.jp
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