Section 3: Implementation considerations

The Agricultural Open Data Package provides key data categories, example datasets and links to relevant initiatives supporting data interoperability in order to facilitate the development of an open data infrastructure for the agricultural sector. However, to implement such an open data infrastructure, a number of aspects need to be taken into account:

1. Specific local needs and opportunities, taking into account other government policies, end user needs, local tech communities and the private sector.
2. The open data readiness of a country. The use and uptake of open data may need to be stimulated or barriers to be broken, such as the lack of connectivity of the end user or the capacity to use the data.
3. Responsible open data publication, concerning privacy, data ownership and possible misuse of the data.
4. The low-hanging fruit. Some datasets may be more easily available, or the development of an open data infrastructure may be linked to other initiatives, e.g. reporting on the sustainable development goals.
5. Linking to the global ecosystem for open data in agriculture. In the international community a number of large open data initiatives exist. To maximise impact a local data infrastructure can be linked to these international initiatives, avoiding duplication, increasing reuse and learning from the global community.

These five aspects are elaborated in the following sections, including references to key resources for further reading.