Highlights of the international symposium on farmers’ access to data and full video recording | South Africa | THE GFAR BLOG

"Issues around farmers’ rights to data, both in terms of access to data and ownership of data, are crucial to one of the key areas of activity of partners in GFAR: the opening of access to information systems for sharing, transforming and using agricultural knowledge, especially in light of GFAR’s overall approach to putting the smallholder farmer at the center of innovation and seeking change in their lives.

Partners in GFAR are already working together in this area under the Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition initative (GODAN), while a more focused GFAR Collective Action on Farmers’ Data Rights is taking shape in these weeks, building on the interest raised by discussions promoted by GFAR in the last two years, two GODAN papers on ownership of open data and responsible data and the training course and symposium convened by GFAR in Centurion in November 2017.

In November 2017, GFAR convened a training course and a SYMPOSIUM ON FARMERS’ ACCESS TO DATA in Centurion, South Africa. The events were co-funded by GODAN and CTA and were organized by ITOCA.

The symposium was held on 24 November 2017 and was organized around three panel sessions, each featuring a keynote speech by the panel chair, one or two introductory presentations and a panel discussion. The full program with the presentations is available in one document here...."