By Raleigh Butler
Entities around the world gather data focused on various aspects of agriculture. Unfortunately, this information is not always accessible or easily available for those who need it. The National Agricultural Producers Data Cooperative (NAPDC) project recognizes that agriculture is a keystone of society and a critical piece of national solutions to climate-related challenges. The NAPDC, with support from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), aims to enable agricultural producers to benefit from the massive amounts of data generated by members of their community. As the NAPDC site states, the goal of the project is to create a “blueprint” for a national data framework where agricultural entities “can store and share data . . . to maximize their production and profitability.”
With enough available data and methods to extract relevant information, national agricultural systems can become more efficient and profitable. The framework being developed by the NAPDC will include data from many types of agricultural contexts and agricultural institutions, first and foremost the producers that drive agricultural productivity. Making the system diverse yet robust while safeguarding farmer privacy will result in a more reliable set of data for the entire agricultural community.
The NAPDC project emphasizes providing resources to community partners through webinars and seed grants in order to “identify needs and opportunities as well as challenges in physical infrastructure, education and human resources, and critical use cases” critical to the success of a future data framework. The project recognizes that a secure framework is necessary to protect privacy and governance information; these aspects will be carefully considered. The project also recognizes the importance of land-grant institutions and agricultural extension in the successful deployment of any framework.
The NAPDC project has a seed grant program to support development of community activities, with a deadline of June 1, 2022. It will be granting 4–6 awards; complete guidelines are listed on the site here. The grants will not be limited to principal investigators at universities; rather, any institution eligible for USDA funding may apply. As stated on the website, “individuals willing and qualified to lead representation for a national or regional agroecosystem are encouraged to apply.”
“The work of the NAPDC aligns well with the Digital Agriculture community of the Midwest Big Data Innovation Hub,” said MBDH Executive Director John MacMullen. “We anticipate integrating findings from our Community Data Needs Assessment (Community DNA) activities, which are helping to understand the data needs of stakeholders across the food supply chain, with the work of the NAPDC. We also look forward to partnering with the NAPDC team on our agricultural data work with the IEEE Standards Association and other partners.”
Jennifer Clarke, lead PI of the NAPDC project and faculty at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, hopes the project serves as an initial step towards a national framework. “This project represents the willingness of the USDA to listen to agricultural producers and support the data needs of producer communities,” said Dr. Clarke. “This project provides producers and stakeholders with a vehicle for communicating their challenges related to data, and provides educators and researchers with a vehicle for proposing solutions to these challenges.”
The NAPDC will host an All-Hands Meeting in the spring of 2023 at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln that will highlight the work of the NAPDC and discussions of specific areas for future USDA investment. Interested members of the community can sign up for the project listserv through the project website (https://www.agdatacoop.org/) to receive updates about this meeting as well as project information.
Get involved
Do you have an agricultural data success story or case study to share from your organization? Contact the Midwest Big Data Innovation Hub if you’re aware of other people or projects we should profile here. The MBDH has a variety of ways to get involved with our community and activities.
The Midwest Big Data Innovation Hub is an NSF-funded partnership of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Indiana University, Iowa State University, the University of Michigan, the University of Minnesota, and the University of North Dakota, and is focused on developing collaborations in the 12-state Midwest region. Learn more about the national NSF Big Data Hubs community.