Charles Sturt University is among a group of agrifood stakeholders that have established the $4 million Australian AgriFood Data Exchange (AADE), a secure way to exchange inter-organisational information in agriculture and agribusiness.
The AADE has a vision to create an interconnected data highway for Australia’s commercial food farming value chain, and seeks to provide a digital platform which enables:
- The permissioned exchange of data between industry participants
- Timely access to information that supports decision making for the value chain
- Standardisation and consistency of industry data assets
- The capacity to adapt, incorporating new use cases for data exchange that deliver value and support resilience of participants
- Increased transparency of industry data to support multiple use cases (e.g. regulatory compliance, collaboration between public and private data sets).
The project was initiated by Integrity Systems Company and KPMG and has received an initial $4 million in funding from the federal government, Meat & Livestock Australia, Charles Sturt, the Food and Agribusiness Growth Centre, Fisheries Research Development Corporation, the Victorian government, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), the Western Australian government and Australian Wool Innovation.
The AADE will enable fluid collaboration up and down the supply chain, Charles Sturt University chief operating officer Mr Rick Willmott said.
“By enabling agrifood industry data owners to efficiently direct and control what data they share, the Australian AgriFood Data Exchange will support users to unlock value from their data,” he said.
“Charles Sturt University is committed to engaging with government, industry and other partners to generate meaningful, substantive outcomes like this for regional Australia.”
Staff from the Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation are working with KPMG to design some of the project.
The federal government’s investment in the AADE directly aligns with its agriculture agenda by establishing a next-generation digital platform for data, according to minister for Agriculture and Northern Australia David Littleproud.
“Market access for our products depends on trusted supply chains and trusted compliance and quality assurance data accompanying the products,” Littleproud said.
“This project is another example of how the Australian Government is backing Australia’s agriculture, forestry and fisheries industries to access and grow export earnings as the industry strives to meet and exceed its $100 billion farmgate value target by 2030.”
Data is the lifeblood of any industry, according to AADE chairman Andrew Robb.
“The Australian AgriFood Data Exchange is a nation building project that will support the growth and resilience of the Australian agrifood industry by building a secure and trusted framework for data to be shared across the sector,” Robb said.
“This will create transformational opportunities to innovate and supercharge Australian agriculture.”
Other supporters of the AADE include the NSW government, Agrifutures, Australian Plant Phenomics Facility, Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation, Cotton Rural Research Development Corporation, Elders Rural, Federation University, Grower Group Alliance and Australian Eggs.
For more information, or to register interest in being part of the Australian AgriFood Data Exchange, visit www.ozagdx.com.au.