FAO.org

The Global Forum on Agricultural Research and Innovation (GFAR), the Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition initiative (GODAN), the Technical Center for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) and the Kuratorium für Technik und Bauwesen in der Landwirtschaft (KTBL) organised an e-consultation on ethical, legal and policy aspects of open data affecting smallholder farmers. 

Forum dates: 4 till 8 June 2018.

The objectives of this e-consultation are to:

• Clearly identify the ethical, legal and policy gaps that currently prevent data from benefiting smallholder farmers.
• Using practical examples, give a clear picture of what the desired scenarios would be by 2030 for a policy, legal and ethical ecosystem that helps farmers benefit from data-driven agriculture.
• Move back in time from these scenarios, identify long-term changes needed compared to the current scenario.
• Indicate concrete short-term steps to be taken to move towards the desired scenarios.

The discussion will be organized around five questions, with each day dedicated to one question. The conclusions of this e-consultation will feed into a high-level expert consultation that will take place in July. This face-to-face consultation will build on previous discussions and publications, as well as this online consultation, and will in turn set an actionable plan for the future. This will help ensure a follow-up to our conversation, making your views very valuable.

1. Major challenges from a policy legal and ethical perspective, preventing smallholder farmers benefiting from data sharing.
2. Desired scenarios for a future where data-driven agriculture is successfully adopted by smallholder farmers.
3. Long-term ethical, legal and policy changes needed to move from the current scenario to the desired scenarios.
4. Actions to be taken in 2018-2021 to ensure smallholder farmers benefit from agricultural data in the future.
5. Summarize the salient points of this discussion and recommend priority aspects for the f2f consultation.