Later
this month, on April 29 and 30th, the G-8 will host an important
meeting on Open Data for Agriculture. The Department of Agriculture is
organizing the meeting on behalf of the United States for members of the G-8
and interested parties. I bet that
doesn’t sound very exciting. Wrong! This meeting can have a major impact on
global food security.
The
meeting grows directly out of the G-8 Summit hosted by President Obama last
year at Camp David and the commitment they made to a new Alliance for Food
Security and Nutrition. As a part of the
Camp David Declaration, the G-8 agreed to “take to scale new technologies and
other innovations that can increase sustainable agricultural productivity, and
reduce the risk borne by vulnerable economies and communities” in Africa.
A
fact sheet was issued by White House at the time of the Declaration. In an effort to scale up new technologies,
the G-8 agreed to:
• “Launch a Technology Platform with the
Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, the Forum for
Agricultural Research in Africa and other partners in consultation with the
Tropical Agriculture Platform and the Coalition for African Rice Development
(CARD) initiative that will assess the availability of improved technologies
for food commodities critical to achieve sustainable yield, resilience, and
nutrition impacts, identify current constraints to adoption, and create a
roadmap to accelerate adoption of technologies.
• “Launch the Scaling Seeds and Other
Technologies Partnership, housed at the Alliance for a Green Revolution in
Africa to strengthen the seed sector and promote the commercialization,
distribution and adoption of key technologies improved seed varieties, and
other technologies prioritized by the Technology Platform to meet established
goals in partner countries.
•
“Share relevant agricultural data available from G-8 countries with African
partners and convene an international conference on Open Data for Agriculture,
to develop options for the establishment of a global platform to make reliable
agricultural and related information available to African farmers, researchers
and policymakers, taking into account existing agricultural data systems.”
The goal of the Open Data for Agriculture
meeting, according to USDA “is to get a commitment and action from nations and
relevant stakeholders to promote policies and invest in projects that open
access to publicly funded global agriculturally relevant data streams, making
such data readily accessible to users in Africa and world-wide, and ultimately
supporting a sustainable increase in food security in developed and developing
countries.”
Secretary
Tom Vilsack will lead the US Delegation.
Under Secretary Dr. Catherine Woteki, USDA’s Chief Scientist, said “The
G-8 International Conference on Open Data for Agriculture will bring together
many forward-thinking entrepreneurs and innovators, along with policy makers
and thought leaders. There, we will have
the opportunity to discuss how open agricultural data increases food security, improves
access to research for developing countries and provides new opportunities for
private/public partnerships.”
All
innovators and private sector partners are invited to participate in the Open
Data for Agriculture meeting and to help define the scope of the
discussion. Hopefully, the meeting will
facilitate the transfer of scientific research and information in a broad range
of areas from best agricultural practices, to research, biotechnology,
irrigation, extension services and applied technology.
Precision agriculture technology can increase productivity including the productivity of smallholder farmers. Wireless technology, with GPS, may be one of the few areas where Africa is ahead of the United States. Africa has jumped over wires. Farmers who don’t have a tractor or an irrigation system have cell phones and smart phones. In the most remote rural areas, communication is immediate and very clear.
The
Open Data for Agriculture meeting can be critical to stimulating agriculture
innovation and sharing information through a broad cross section of
disciplines. It is also important that
the G- 8 recognize it is much easier to share information and data with Africa
if the G-8 is all on the same page.
Synchronization of data and the regulatory systems among the G-8 countries
would greatly facilitate the transfer of information from the G-8 to Africa and
other developing regions of the globe.
Leadership on synchronization must come from the United States given our
unique position in agriculture production and trade. It should be on the agenda at both the Open
Data meeting and at the G-8 meeting in Ireland this year.
Last
year, the United Nations recognized that “new green biotechnologies can play a
valuable role in enabling farmers to adapt to climate change, improve resistance
to pests, restore soil fertility and contribute to the diversification of the
rural economy.” (Resilient People, Resilient Planet, report of the UN
Secretary General’s Panel on Global Sustainability) And just last month, the 2013 Economic Report of the President included a chapter on
agriculture that noted “new seeds are less
susceptible to disease and produce higher yields, new tractors are guided by
satellites and spread fertilizer optimally across the field, and animals’ diets
are optimally calibrated to grow larger animals with less feed.”
Let’s
build on the UN report and President Obama’s Economic Report and fully embrace
science based agricultural innovation. It is time to move beyond politics and
let science achieve global food security.
That includes here in the United States as well as in Europe and around
the world.
On
the ground in Africa, the leader is the Alliance for the Green Revolution in
Africa (AGRA), chaired by the Kofi Annan, the former Secretary General of the
United Nations. AGRA is working with
smallholder farmers on soils, seeds, extension services, and market
development. There are now over 15,000
local agro-dealers in rural communities selling hybrid seeds and nutrients
while also providing extension services. AGRA is also working with the African
Union and the breadbasket countries to establish the public policy necessary to
support agriculture development and trade within Africa.
In
short, to achieve global food security Africa must become food secure and a net
exporter of food. That is not as difficult as it might seem. As current yields
are so low, new seeds, micro- doses of nutrients, and improved management can
easily double and triple yields in a single growing season. The transfer of data and information,
extension services through open data communications can quickly increase yields.
Most
of the underutilized agriculture acres in the world are in Africa. Africa is the key to global food security and
Open Data for Agriculture can make the difference. The G-8’s effort in Africa is not an act of
charity. It is a pragmatic realization
that the entire world needs Africa’s agricultural production in order to feed
the 9 billion people expected by 2050.
See you on April 29th. It couldn’t be more exciting.
