A new certification scheme for the good governance and management of farm data in the UK is now live.
This week saw the launch of the not-for-profit organisation Farm Data Principles at a meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Science & Technology in Agriculture at Portcullis House in Westminster. Farm Data Principles succeeds the British Farm Data Council, an industry body started in June 2022 to establish common standards of data care, security and ownership for the agricultural and horticultural sectors.
The Council developed a self-declaration certification scheme to enable participating organisations to demonstrate their alignment to four core principles: the farmer (data originator) has the right of control over their data; a data handler is transparent about what the value or purpose of a farmer sharing their data is; a farmer’s data is kept safe; and the certifying organisation is supportive of “making data easy”. Day-to-day operation of the certification scheme has been outsourced to specialist agridata consultancy Communagator.
“Good farm data governance is essential if farmers in the UK are to have trust in companies and organisations who are bringing data tools to the market and handling on-farm data,” says Professor Tina Barsby OBE, the former NIAB Group chief executive who is chair of Farm Data Principles. “Having consulted with much of the food supply chain, we have formulated good farm data principles and are now ready to formally launch the certification process for those companies and organisations that can demonstrate their adherence to those principles.
“This is the culmination of a lot of hard work by the volunteer council over the past 18 months. We now have a fully functioning scheme, a contracted day-to-day operator and, we can announce that we already have several organisations who have certified.”
Prof Barsby advises that the scheme is based on the principle of self-declaration. “All certifying organisations complete a data handler statement which, subject to some checks and balances, is then published on the Farm Data Principles website as a public disclosure that their management of farm data aligns with the principles we have created. The principles ensure that farmers’ interests are front and centre when they are asked to share their data,” she concludes.
The scheme also has the endorsement of the Association of Independent Crop Consultants, the British Institute of Agricultural Consultants and the NFU. Early adopters of certification are Linking Environment and Farming for its LEAF Marque assurance scheme, Assured Food Standards which runs Red Tractor Assurance, agronomy services company HL Hutchinson, agridata analytics business Yagro and Map of Ag’s Pure Farming data exchange.
“Farm data transparency is an area of understandable focus currently,” states LEAF chief executive David Webster. “For an organisation like LEAF Marque it is vital we can provide the necessary reassurance that any data shared through our platform will be managed responsibly and ethically. Farm Data Principles is an independent framework to demonstrate our organisational commitment to responsible and transparent data management practices.”
Certifying organisations pay an annual licence fee of £950 +VAT and can be either fully certified or provisionally certified depending on the information they declare on their data handler statement.