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Series of experiences in Latin America on inclusive digital agriculture initiatives, collected for the Confederación de Organizaciones de Productores Familiares del Mercosur Ampliado (COPROFAM).

Information compiled on some selected experiences of inclusive digital agriculture.

A regional survey was undertaken in October 2021 to gather input from the production units, i.e., the family farming producers in LAC, for the identification of current uses, needs and expectations in terms of digital solutions. It was conducted within the framework of the collective action on inclusive digital transformation of agriculture facilitated by GFAR and implemented in LAC by FORAGRO, in conjunction with IICA and COPROFAM, with international partners AgGateway and GODAN.

This paper explores the possibilities for strengthening agriculture, in particular small agriculture, often represented by family farming, with the use of digital technologies. Within the framework of an initiative of the Global Forum on Agricultural Research and Innovation (GFAR), the Forum of the Americas for Agricultural Research and Technological Development (FORAGRO),with its secretariat at the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), and the Confederation of Family Producer Organizations of the Expanded Mercosur (COPROFAM), in collaboration with international partners AgGateway and Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN), the approach of putting small-scale producers at the center of digital solution design has been adopted, called “inclusive digital agriculture” (IDA).

Agricultural data flows involve different actors from generation to transformation, enrichment, aggregation and final fruition. These dynamics have ethical, socio-economic, and legal dimensions that affect the way the digitalization of agriculture benefits the various actors, often leaving the least resourced behind... Speakers in this session organized by GFAR illustrate the most important ethical and legal issues related to farm data flows and governance.

On 9/12/2021, at the KM4AgD final conference in Accra, FARA hosted the virtual launch of the GFAR-facilitated Inter-regional Task Force on Inclusive Digital Agriculture.
FARA Executive Secretary Yemi Akinbamijo inaugurated the Task Force.

The second brief produced by GODAN for the Collective Action on Inclusive Digital Ag. This brief focuses on the challenges of accessing data useful to small-scale farmers, addressing the following questions:
- What are the barriers that smallholder farmers face when trying to access data, specifically from public sources?
- How can these barriers be overcome?

The first brief produced by GODAN for the Collective Action on Inclusive Digital Ag. This brief focuses on data sharing aspects of smart farming. The brief addresses the following questions:
- Why do farmers want / need to share data and with whom?
- What are the challenges and risks that farmers, particularly smallholder farmers, face with the adoption of digital technologies and the sharing of their data?
- What are the measures and safeguards to protect against exploitation when sharing data? How can smallholder farmers harness the benefits from sharing such data?

Infographic developed at the beginning of the Collective Action on Inclusive Digital Agriculture to provide a visual consolidated overview of famers' concerns over digital agriculture.
Developed by GFAR and FORAGRO.

The first in a series of events to support and inform the Action on Inclusive Digital Transformation of Agriculture, whose first chapter in Latin America and the Caribbean is being conducted by FORAGRO, COPROFAM, GODAN and AgGateway, facilitated by GFAR.

This Toolkit has the practical purpose of providing the conceptual basis and example clauses for general, scalable guidelines for everyone dealing with the production, ownership, sharing and use of data in agriculture. The initial version contains examples inspired by the four existing codes of conduct in different regions. Users can combine clauses and export their set as a basis for a tailored code or for contract clauses.

FORAGRO (the Forum of the Americas for Agricultural Research and Technological Development) made a call for a virtual dialogue to analyze collaboratively and agree on the priorities that should be incorporated into the hemispheric RDI agenda, to achieve an inclusive and equitable use of digital agriculture, that leaves no one behind.

White paper published by GFAR, CTA and GODAN in 2018 on the challenges of harnessing the power of data for smallholder farmers. It discusses risk of data sharing, challenges of access to relevant data, opportunities and drivers, and recommendations for making digital agriculture more "farmer-friendly".