About
The Sub-Group on Codes of Conduct, Voluntary Guidelines and Principles Relevant for Farm Data Sharing (or Sub-Group on Data Codes of Conduct for short) was established in February 2019, in a collaboration between GODAN and the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA). It came about as part of a collective action plan from an expert consultation convened in Bonn, Germany in July 2018 by GODAN, the CTA and the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR). The sub-group is intended as a practical arm of the GODAN Data Rights and Responsible Data Working Group, and a means to inform and guide the activity of the parent group.
In July 2019, the Sub-Group on Data Codes of Conduct held its first successful two-day Workshop, to better understand the socio-ethical considerations surrounding smart farming and data sharing. The Workshop gathered representatives from farmers organisations, researchers, data specialists, and law and policy makers to explore what an ideal agricultural code of conduct might look like, taking into account the needs of all involved. A full report will be produced towards the end of 2019, but in the meantime you can find an article outlining the main findings of the Workshop here.
If you would like to get involved in this important research, membership is through the GODAN Data Rights and Responsible Data Working Group. Please see the contact details at the bottom of this page.
Main Objectives
Vountary codes of conduct, guidelines and principles of transparency in the governance of agricultural data are a relatively recent construct. Whilst laws and regulations covering personal data are becoming increasingly widely recognised, legislation does not yet exist to cover data flows in most industries, where actors within the data value chain often need to share information while protecting themselves and others from the risks of data sharing. Data within these value chains is currently governed through private contracts and licensing agreements, which are often complex and leave data producers little room to negotiate. In this context, codes of conduct have started to emerge to fill the legislative void, setting common standards for data sharing contracts and providing guidelines on which contracts can be based.
Agricultural data is a good example of the potential sensitivity of data flows. Agricultural data flows from and between many, varied actors: Farms, service providers, farmers associations, tech companies and market data providers, to name just a few. This opens up many questions around data rights and privacy. Not least because data, originating on the farm, often contains household and personal information, and is provided by farmers and smallholders who are often in the weakest position to negotiate their rights.
GODAN and the CTA are, through the creation of this Sub-Group, seeking to empower farmers through more equitable data sharing, examining and identifying the potential risks and benefits of information exchange in order to then extract and recommend the essential aspects and points for a general, scalable and further customizable code of conduct template that best addresses the needs of the farmer.
Status: Active
How to Join
Request to join the Working Group discussions mailing list: wg-Datarights@godan.info
Working Group Contact: Foteini Zampati [Foteini.Zampati@godan.info]