The Gateway to Digital Agriculture in 2018

AgGateway Year in Review

The Gateway to Digital Agriculture in 2018

By Wendy Smith, AgGateway President & CEO

(Excerpted from Wendy Smith’s presentation at Annual Conference)

For our 2018 Annual Report, we chose the title, “The Gateway to Digital Agriculture”, recognizing our mission to promote and enable the industry’s transition to digital agriculture and expand the use of information to maximize efficiency and productivity. That title also highlights AgGateway’s role as a conduit to the resources and collaboration you need to be successful. We are on the threshold of change and opportunity in our industry. This organization must continue to be the gateway to that opportunity for our members.

In 2018 we made great progress in this first year of our 5-year strategic plan. The main goals of that plan are to:

  • Establish AgGateway as the leader in the transition to digital agriculture
  • Ensure AgGateway provides value through expanding influence, and developing solutions to industry challenges; and
  • Increase membership and engagement in AgGateway to accelerate the digital agriculture transformation.

Looking at our resources, you see some great examples of how we are providing digital ag leadership and member value.

This year the ADAPT Oversight Committee released the ADAPT ISO plugin, a major step forward for interoperability in precision agriculture. The American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) has named the ADAPT Framework and ISOXML Plugin as a winner in its AE50 program for 2019. Another indication of the level of interest ADAPT is generating is the fact that ADAPT has now been downloaded more than 12,000 times. Already, the new ISO plugin has been downloaded almost 3,000 times. We look forward to continued expansion of ADAPT adoption in 2019.

Another new resource is the irrigation standard, which is a tremendous achievement of our precision ag irrigation project also know as PAIL. The new standard has been accepted as a national standard by ASABE. The standard will help growers evaluate weather, soil and crop data, so they can make more informed decisions for smarter energy and water use. We are calling for participation for the next phase of the project, PAIL 2. (Check out the new PAIL flyer!)

There are several other precision ag advances to mention. AgGateway’s new Post-Image-Collection Specification for Agricultural Remote Sensing standard – also know as PICS, allows growers to bring images from satellites, planes and drones into their farm management information systems and convert them into usable information, regardless of the system manufacturer. The new ContextItem System helps farm management software keep up with the changing data-collection needs of different geographies. (Check out the new ContextItem flyer!) And the new AgGateway standard for Observations and Measurements helps users capture accurate quantitative and qualitative observations in the ag value chain. (Check out the new O&M flyer!)

Here are a few other advances in 2018:

  • The Crop Protection Council realized a solution for when multiple location codes are used for public warehouses, saving time, and solving problems of inconsistent data.
  • AgGateway and ResponsibleAg launched a new look-up functionality within the Ag Industry Identification system – AGIIS – that allows fertilizer manufacturers, distributors and retailers to automatically confirm that fertilizer locations they are doing business with are certified for safe fertilizer storage and handling.
  • We made significant updates to AgGateway’s Ag Industry Identification System (AGIIS), helping subscribers quickly access the business data they need. We just completed Phase one of the AGIIS Modernization project, upgrading the underlying framework to set the stage for further enhancements.
  • We launched a new Traceability Working Group, which has identified numerous points within the supply chain to improve connections for traceability.
  • AgGateway also teamed up with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on a groundbreaking agreement to work on data projects to benefit American farmers in the transition to digital agriculture. Meeting every two weeks with representatives from the Office of the CIO (OCIO), Risk Management Agency (RMA), Farm Service Agency (FSA), National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), and the GSA Center of Excellence for Data Analytics, they are working with us on projects like incorporating their terminology into the AgGlossary and defining how to best use the information within the USDA to the benefits of the ag industry.
  • We held another successful “Quick Connect” Session at the Mid-Year Meeting – face-to-face discussions between trading partners, to lay out concrete next steps to establish electronic connections. After this year’s Quick Connect, more than half of the participants said they are now pursuing specific implementations because of the Quick Connect sessions. My hats go off to the Ag Retail Council and others who have been very active in these meetings.
  • Our Mix Ticket Working Group is nearing completion of a new standard; and we have another very active cross-council group working to harmonize business rules.
  • There are additional task groups in precision ag, government regulation and other areas that are moving the ball forward and setting up new priorities as we enter 2019.
  • 2018 was also another very productive year in terms of working with AgGateway Global Network. As many of you know, this is an affiliate organization that focuses on the global, coordinated use of ag standards. In Europe, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand, and other areas, they’re working on helping interested companies get their own initiatives moving.

All of this great work is thanks to you, our members. And this work sets us up well for 2019 and our vision for AgGateway 2020. (See the “AgGateway 2020” article this issue.)