Since 2020, AGRIS offers a downloadable collection of metadata describing books, journal articles, monographs, book chapters, datasets and grey literature - including unpublished scientific and technical reports, theses, dissertations and conference papers in the area of food and agriculture in order to facilitate their reuse.

While the AGRIS website is open to any individual to search or browse the collection, now it is also possible to facilitate access to a certain number of records for machine use. The individual AGRIS data providers are under no obligation to share the metadata. Joining the AGRIS Open Data Set (ODS) initiative is not binding; a data provider can ask to be removed at any time.

The AGRIS Open Dataset

The AGRIS ODS comes under an open license, CC BY 3.0 IGO. The AGRIS ODS is downloadable as a zip file at https://agris.fao.org/agris_ods/. It is available in different formats, including AP and RDF formats that allow using the metadata with semantics technologies. While the zip file includes many records, once downloaded, the files can be filtered to the best use of the organisation and its information system.

AGRIS individual data providers are not obligated to share their metadata. Joining the AGRIS Open Data Set (ODS) initiative is not binding; a data provider can ask to be removed at any time.

Benefits for data providers

The AGRIS ODS comes with a lot of new opportunities for data providers. In particular:

Increased visibility of resources – Sharing metadata through ODS enhances the visibility and accessibility of AGRIS data provider’s resources, while the exposed data’s provenance remains intact.

Create open knowledge – Exposing open metadata allows people to run machine learning algorithms, to use semantic technologies to discover connections between datasets and to derive new knowledge. Data can be enriched with additional data sources including media, maps, and other related sources. With open data, it is possible to combine data sources, discover new results, and create innovation; thus further benefiting the entire community and taking steps closer to a world with zero hunger.

How to be part of the AGRIS ODS

Current data providers interested in joining the new initiative are asked to opt-in here. For more information about becoming an AGRIS data provider or using the AGRIS platform, please visit agris.fao.org.