Run in partnership with New Zealand agri software business Rezare Systems, the initiative will start off with a series of workshops in July and August, with aims for an industry-supported code to be produced later this year.
The project will be based on a set of principles based on farmers’ inputs and the wider value chain.
AHDB’s chief strategy officer Tom Hinds said finding an effective way of removing the frictions surrounding the sharing of data was a critical step in unlocking the full potential of data in the industry.
“While agriculture is making some progress in developing data-rich tools, there remain significant barriers to accessing and reusing farm data for the good of the sector, much of which relates to a lack of trust about who’s going to do what with the data,” said Hinds.
“We need some robust principles in place that all players in the farm data chain can align with. Getting data flowing in a transparent, secure and trusted environment needs this step and, as a levy-funded organisation, we believe it right we take this forward on behalf of our industry.”
Rezare has led a similar initiative in New Zealand, which it said should enable it to take the learning from the project and develop a similar set of principles that work effectively in the UK.
“New Zealand’s code was a critical step, allowing the development of a set of farm data standards and data exchange protocols,” said Rezare’s UK managing director Julian Gairdner. “British agriculture needs a similar foundation on which effective data sharing should be built and which needs to work across the key farming sectors.”