AgGateway,a nonprofit consortium of businesses serving the agriculture industry, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture have forged an agreement to work together on data projects to benefit American farmers in the transition to digital agriculture. The current agreement will consist of a series of efforts over the next 20 months; all results of the collaboration will be made publicly available.

Specifically, the collaboration is designed to provide both parties with the opportunity to better serve American farmers by: (1) aligning USDA and AgGateway data elements and data standards, and (2) developing procedures within USDA that align with the use of precision agriculture technology and data used by producers and agribusinesses.

"We are excited by this collaboration and what it means for data standardization in American agriculture," AgGateway president and chief executive officer Wendy Smith said. "AgGateway and USDA began meeting two years ago to discuss the importance of consistent data standards as the agriculture industry increasingly relies on accurate, timely data to maximize productivity and efficiency."

USDA chief data officer Bobby Jones added, "This is a very important area for the American farmer, so we're pleased to be moving forward in these work areas."

Jones noted that the project aligns with the President Management Agenda, Cross Agency Priority Goal 2, Data, Accountability & Transparency - Leveraging Data as a Strategic Asset, and it amplifies Strategy 4: Commercialization, Innovation & Public Use of the Federal Data Strategy.

AgGateway members and USDA information technology experts will cover a number of work areas, including refining published data elements and standards in the National Information Exchange Model agriculture domain; establishing application programming interface standards; establishing USDA open data standards (data.gov); incorporating USDA terms and definitions into AgGateway's AgGlossary; beginning work to establish standards and guidelines for field/part-field identification purposes, and data interchange format development for direct reporting of crop, acreage, acreage location and production.