This Roadmap was developed by the ISO Strategic Advisory Group (SAG) on Smart Farming, a group of ISO experts under the joint leadership of ANSI and DIN, the respective ISO members for the USA and Germany. As part of the work, 150 experts from 20 countries analysed the standardization landscape along the entire food value chain. Nine thematic areas were examined in relation to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): crop production, livestock, urban farming, terminology and semantics, social aspects, supply chains, original equipment manufacturers, climate adaptation, environment and data.
The key part of the roadmap is the extensive recommendations for new standardization projects across the entire agricultural and food chains as well as structural recommendations for international cooperation. Development focuses on uniform agricultural semantics and fundamental requirements for data-driven systems in the agrifood sector. The primary emphasis is on standardizing agricultural data types, with the creation of a data type registry to facilitate the exchange of data. This creates a unified data reference architecture in the agrifood value chain.
At the conclusion of the work on the Roadmap for Smart Farming, Christoph Winterhalter, DIN Executive Board Chairman and ISO Vice-President (Policy), said: “Standardization can help to harness the full potential of technology in agricultural and agrifood value creation. By considering not only agricultural production but also the upstream and downstream production and distribution of food, we can now, for the first time, provide a comprehensive and structured recommendation of necessary standardization needs and translate them into concrete projects.”
Sergio Mujica, ISO Secretary-General, commented: “Cooperation among the various institutions and experts is key for the vast and constantly expanding field of smart farming. The ISO SAG on Smart Farming has made it possible for the first time to compile on an international level a standardization roadmap for the agrifood sector. We are looking forward to starting work within our new technical committee in early 2024 to bring these ideas to fruition.”
ISO has created a new technical committee (ISO/TC 347) on data-driven agrifood systems, aiming to improve interoperability in the agricultural sector and to respond to the needs highlighted in the roadmap. All ISO national standards bodies can contribute to this work, which will start in April 2024.
Interested parties can find out more about the results of the Standardization Roadmap and the topic of smart farming at Agritechnica on 15 and 17 November.
15 November 2023 at 3:30 pm: In the exposition area for industry experts (System & Components), DIN and ANSI, the US standards institute, will be jointly presenting on stage the results of the ISO Strategy Advisory Group (SAG) and the new ISO/TC 347, Data-driven agrifood systems.
17 November 2023 at 4:30 pm: DIN activities on smart farming will also be presented to the audience on one of the DLG technical stages. Joint discussions on how agriculture can contribute to making Europe climate neutral will also take place.
DIN, the German Institute for Standardization, is the independent platform for standardization in Germany and worldwide. As a partner for industry, research and society as a whole, DIN plays a major role in supporting the marketability of innovative solutions through standardization – be it in topics around the digitization of business and society or in the context of research projects. More than 36 500 experts from industry, research, consumer protection and the public sector bring their expertise to work on standardization projects managed by DIN.
ISO is an international organization with a membership of 169 national standards bodies. Through its global network, it facilitates the development of voluntary and market-relevant International Standards that support innovation, sustainability, and global trade.
