As farmers and food producers grapple with climate change, a surge in demand for food, supply-chain disruptions, and increasing crop costs, they have embraced technologies that support data-driven decision-making for increased sustainability and profitability. A new Technical Committee (TC) of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), ISO TC 347, Data-driven agrifood systems, aims to improve data interoperability across technologies in the agrifood sector, allowing the industry to realize increased benefits of data collection from complex systems and new tools cropping up across the industry.
Leadership responsibilities for TC 347 are shared between Germany, which holds the secretariat, and the U.S., which holds the chairmanship, with R. Andres Ferreyra of Syngenta serving as chair. ANSI member the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) administers the ANSI-accredited U.S. Technical Advisory Group (TAG) to ISO TC 347.
As the U.S. member body to ISO, ANSI encourages relevant stakeholders to get involved by joining the U.S. TAG to TC 347 and/or a series of workshops to develop an ISO International Workshop Agreement (IWA) on Reference architecture for data-driven agrifood systems, to be held throughout 2024.
Agrifood Systems and its Emerging Challenges
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) defines agrifood (agriculture+ food) systems as: "the entire range of actors, and their interlinked value-adding activities, engaged in the primary production of food and non-food agricultural products, as well as in storage, aggregation, post-harvest handling, transportation, processing, distribution, marketing, disposal and consumption of all food products including those of non-agricultural origin."
In agrifood systems, data are used for everything from observations and measurements in the field, to analysis of crop protection, to herd and process management records. One of the key challenges in this field is the lack of a common data language in agriculture. Devices and software produced by different manufacturers are often out of sync: systems that are unable to communicate with each other make the collection and analysis of data a difficult task—despite the fact that data interoperability is the key to stronger agrifood systems.
ISO TC 347: Supporting Interoperability in Data-Driven Agrifood Systems
ISO TC 347 was established in October 2023 to address challenges and create standards that support interoperability in data-driven agrifood systems. The TC will also help advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and fulfill sustainable strategies including the European Green Deal and the Paris Agreement.
“Defining and implementing standards is critical for the interoperability needed to improve our overall ability to make data-driven, smarter decisions across the agrifood industry,” said R. Andres Ferreyra. “As someone who has worked with agricultural data for 28 years, I'm energized by the promise of TC 347 and the IWA to positively revolutionize agrifood worldwide. I encourage anyone who is interested to get involved in these efforts.”
The TC’s first plenary, held virtually on April 10, welcomed 140 delegates from 19 nations for robust discussions on the standardization work that lies ahead.
How to Get Involved
ISO International Workshop Agreement
ANSI encourages interested stakeholders from public and private sector organizations to participate in the ISO International Workshop Agreement (IWA) to develop a reference architecture for data-driven agrifood systems. The IWA will serve as an early, inclusive step toward enabling data-driven capabilities in agrifood systems. Workshops will take place virtually on the following dates:
Access more information, including how to register, in the IWA invitation.
U.S. TAG Efforts
U.S. stakeholders are also encouraged to join the U.S. TAG to ISO TC 347, which advances U.S. positions to the technical committee.
“As TC 347 embarks on the critical work of addressing interoperability challenges in agrifood, participation is vital to assuring that U.S. consensus positions are heard at the international level,” said Brent Kemp, TAG chair. “We urge all stakeholders in smart farming to offer their expertise by joining the U.S. TAG.”
Interested parties can find more information about the TAG at the following link: https://asabe.org/Publications-Standards/Standards-Development/International-Standards/ISO-US-TAG-TC-347-Data-driven-Agrifood-Systems
