Presentation by Veronique Bellon-Maurel delivered at the 3rd BDE SC2 workshop in Brussels, 31/3/2017

1. www.irstea.fr
Véronique Bellon-Maurel,
Director of Ecotechnology Dept
Director of #DigitAg Convergence Lab
AgGate
The French Agricultural Data Platform
Digital Agriculture
Convergence Laboratory
“European Policy Perspectives on Data-intensive Agriculture & Food”
2nd Joint workshop of Big Data Europe & GODAN
31 March 2017

2. 2
ORIGINE OF AGGATE
Octobre 2015
Innovation Agriculture 2025
Report
By F Houllier (INRA Pdt),
P Pringuet (AgroParisTech Pdt),
P Lecouvey (DG ACTA) &
JM Bournigal (Pdt IRSTEA)
2
Octobre 2016
AgGate Portal
A mission from the Ministries of
Agriculture and of Research about the
setting up of a data portal to boost
open innovation –
Jean-Marc Bournigal (IRSTEA Pdt)

3. 3
www.irstea.fr
Digital technologies in agriculture
 79% french farmers acknowledge the usefulness of digital
technologies
 57% think there is a good return &
 82% think they have generated productivity gains
 85% estimate they have been
responsible for input reduction
 +110% : increase of use of
professional applications by farmers
who own a smartphone (bw 2013
and 2015)

4. 4
The data revolution in agriculture
Technologies for high
precision data
acquisition
Technologies for high
precision data
acquisition
Technologies for
massive data
acquisition
Technologies for
massive data
acquisition
Increase of
Data storage
capacity
Increase of
Data storage
capacity
Methods for
Data processing
Methods for
Data processing
New Decision
Aid Systems
New Decision
Aid Systems
New services to farmersNew services to farmers
Adapting
agricultural
advising services
Adapting
agricultural
advising services
New AppsNew Apps New Web
services
New Web
services
Agricultural Big DataBig Data
Farm MachineryFarm MachinerySatellite
s
Satellite
s
RFIDRFID
Mobile SensorsMobile Sensors
UAVUAV SmartphonesSmartphonesWeather StationsWeather Stations
Ambiant sensorsAmbiant sensors
Robot
s
Robot
s
Sensors and
connected objects
New knowledgeNew knowledge New indexesNew indexes New modelsNew models
4

5. 5
OBJECTIVES OF AGGATE
1. To Allow us to access, use and valorize data produced by public and
private actors related to agriculture.
To facilitate open innovation
for a data-driven agriculture
2- To create a win-win ecosystem to boost the development of
innovative services in agriculture
3. To share the benefit if this new knowledge between actors of the
value chain: farmers, advisors, companies
To do so it is urgent
= to create a unique acces to data : the AgGate portal
= to encourage data producers to share data :
= to encourage companies of the digital economy to work in
agriculture
=> Win-win ecosystem management

6. 6
THE AGGATE PORTAL: 5 FUNCTIONNAL
MODULES
A portal to acces
various types of data
A digital maketplace for
(free) Apps
A cloud for farmers
A showroom for
commercial Decision
Aid systems (+ DAS
« tripadvisor »)
A room for socializing

7. 7
MAIN CRITICAL POINTS (TECHNICAL ASPECTS)
General architecture: distributed databases and integration
Data virtualization & interconnexion
– Data integration: different natures & different sources.
– Interconnexion need common referentiels
 Interconnexion « entry lock »: complementary to the research engine

8. 8
MAIN CRITICAL POINTS (TECHNICAL ASPECTS)
 Security
– Personal Data, monetary exchanges
– Access rights to the platform (authentication) : modality of access
must be clearly defined
 Anonymisation of pieces of data : problem with spatio-temporal data
 Internal research engine (metadata & semantic issues)
• To reduce the « noise » (avoid non-relevant answers)
• To avoid non-response (because of bad linkage)
⇒Additional research is needed on agricultural ontologies
To be dealt with during the data portal construction phase

9. 9
MAIN CRITICAL POINTS (ORGANISATIONAL ASPECTS)
 Which structure for the portal: NOT public (association? Limited company?)
Governed by a small number of organisations linked to agriculture (data
producers) : cooperatives, banks, insurances, farm machinery manufaturers…
 A strategic orientation committee to warrantee conditions of use, deontology,
ethics & the strategy for the ecosystem management
=> it must include representants of:
• Farmers
• Public bodies (reaserch, ministries)
• Experts of digital economy
 A small team (5 persons) to
–Inventory accessible data & negociate other data with providers
–Help data providers for supply the portal with data (legal and technical issues)
–Make the portal evolve
–Ensure the communication & operational management of the ecosystem
(challenge, hackathons, etc)

10. 10
FIRST ESTIMATED COSTS
10
• Human Resources (salaries +environment) : 750 à 800 K€ /an
 4 - 6 FTE : Director, Data manager, Marketing, Project Manager, Assistant
• Construction Phase: 4,8 - 5,4 M€ / 3 years (inc salaries)
 Platform building
 Additional researches (ontologies & referentials)
 Platform (website hosting, data hosting)
 Legal assistance
 Ecosystem management (challenges, etc)
 Salaries 2,2 - 2,4 M€
• Steady state Phase : 1,1 - 1,25 M€ / year ( inc salaries)
 Platform (website hosting, data hosting)
 Legal assistance
 Ecosystem management (challenges, etc)
 Salaries 750 à 800 K€
2,6 to 3 M€
350 à 400 K€

11. 11
LINKS TO OTHER PROJECTS (FRANCE)
 Research
Digital Pool among farmers
A data challenge with competitiveness clusters
1st
– 2nd
of July : Finals in Montpellier
www.digitag-challenge.fr
Farmers must be at the process heart
=> #ImagineAgri
 Actions to create the win-win ecosystem
Digital Agriculture
Convergence Laboratory
www.hdigitag.fr
Linked to the Digital Agriculture Convergence Lab,
a 10 M€ project, started 01 / 01/ 2017
(56 PhD thesis, 150 master students, 18 years of Post-
doc students, visiting scientists, a graduate school…)

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CONCLUSION : AN AMBITIOUS PROJECT
1. To create a collective & collaborative project
involving public & private actors of the agricultar sector
2. To open it to new actors , eg from the digital economy
3. To benefit from the digital revolution in the farms to create and
SHARE value (to avoid value capture by big operators eg GAFAs)
=> data science as a competitiveness lever
4. To create TRUST about sharing added value and about data security
5. To target an international scale: European deployment (relevance of
ontology issues) through eg Digital platform hub / e-infrastructure
( extension of e-Rosa project ? see eROSA.aginfra.eu)
The ambition is: