2019 Nuffield Australia Scholar by Andrew Sargent.

From the article summary: Most software and data platforms developed for agriculture are copyrighted and thus closed in nature. There are very few projects where the source code for these products is freely available to users, referred to as opensource. Many other software sectors have embraced this opensource model. 

This report investigates the opensource software options available to agriculture, discussing  how these projects could benefit the agricultural sector and detailing the challenges or barriers to adoption.

This report found that there were a limited number of opensource projects available that could be adopted easily by industry, but many more that could be adopted with some further investment.

It was also found that there are many more benefits to the industry than just free software. Adoption of an opensource culture in agricultural software and data will increase the value of that data to stakeholders, by allowing easier sharing and analysis of that data. This can speed research outcomes by improving researcher access to on-farm data sources, though a simpler data sharing system, which would enable access to a larger and more diverse dataset for research use.

The adoption of an opensource ecosystem will benefit all stakeholders in the agricultural data value chain, from farmers to developers, manufacturers, and Research Development Corporations (RDC).

Opensource software provides growers with the opportunity to take control of their data and also their data infrastructure. Whether they choose to outsource or self manage, the choice is theirs.

Visit the https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:70af84e1-fef1-4047-87b7-83e365d352a7#pageNum=1 for more information.