Busy Days for AgGateway Global Network

AgGateway Global Network

Busy Days for AgGateway Global Network

By Jim Wilson, President & CEO, AgGateway Global Network

Here’s a brief update on some recent activities that reflect the growing interest around the world in the collaborative work that AgGateway facilitates for eConnectivity.

  • Europe: AgGateway Europe held a meeting in Archamps, France 19-20 October. Agrobase-Logigram hosted the meeting and did a wonderful job. The hospitality lived up to the high standard set by F4F, 365FarmNet, BASF, direkt gruppe, and Bayer in past meetings. The participants focused on the challenges of globally managing reference data and as well as promoting interoperability among devices and systems that manage and analyze farm data. The participants also heard presentations from leaders of various global traceability initiatives, including Fritz Schuster from Agrobase-Logigram, Pierre-Yves Busschaert from UIPP, Uli Heindl from Global Traceability Solutions GmbH, Friedrich Laubscher from Bayer Crop, Paul Brune from BASF, Gaelle Cheruy Pottiau from Agro EDI Europe, and Frans Van Diepen from the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business. AgGateway Europe also attended Agritechnica in mid-November to share work that has been completed.
  • Japan: ALFAE in Japan has taken the lead in exploring the value of establishing an AgGateway in Japan. They held a well-attended meeting in late September, which indicated that they still have some work to do promoting the idea of AgGateway to companies in the region and would really like to see regional companies assume a leadership role in establishing the organization. Global companies are already supportive. After carefully considering the regional scope options, the group concluded that starting out with a regional scope that is Japan-focused makes sense. After AgGateway Japan has achieved stable operations, they will consider a broader Asia regional scope. The next step is to continue the effort to inform regional companies.
  • Latin America: An institutional partnership was signed in September between AgGateway LATAM and EMBRAPA Agricultural Information Technology (one of the main research and technology transfer institutions of the Brazilian government) in order to participate in meetings with the other members and to help disseminate the actions that will be promoted by our new branch in Brazil. AgGateway attended the AgTech Forum in São Paulo/SP - Brazil, on November 21 where Rod Conner gave a talk on AgGateway Global Network and its goals for Brazil and Latin America. We already have several companies in Brazil, which confirmed their participation in AgGateway LATAM. Among them are BASF, CASE IH, John Deere, AGCO, Netafim. Others, such as Stara, Jacto, Kuhn, Climate Corporation, Tecgraf, Trimble, Lindsay, Valley, Agrale and Fockink, are reviewing the proposal; we hope to see them confirm their participation in the coming weeks.
  • New Zealand / Australia: Jim Wilson (AGN president & CEO) met with New Zealand agriculture leaders in mid-October in a number of meetings in Christchurch, Wellington, and Hamilton, New Zealand. The purpose was to explore establishing AgGateway in the region. The New Zealand Ambassador to the U.S. even emailed potential participants, encouraging them to attend the meetings to advance New Zealand’s understanding of the standards and technologies that would broaden access to U.S. markets for New Zealand agricultural production. The consensus was that there is interest, and that the Precision Agriculture Association of New Zealand (PAANZ) would be a good choice to lead the effort given its track record of being independent and unbiased. The next step is for PAANZ to establish a committee to address the matter, which would likely kick off after the summer/Christmas (for New Zealand) break. Some meeting participants expressed interest in Australia being included in the regional scope. While in the region, Jim also presented at PA17 - The International Tri-Conference for Precision Agriculture in 2017 on the topic, “Moving Towards a Global Standard in Farm Data”, which is available at https://goo.gl/QdFY53.

For more information on AgGateway Global Network, contact Jim and his colleagues at member.services@AgGatewayGlobal.net.