Australia’s Farm Data Code has taken a significant step forward, with the first products now officially certified.
Pairtree Intelligence, FarmSimple, and Western Australia’s Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development have all been certified under the new Farm Data Code.
The code, which is voluntary, has been developed by the National Farmers Federation in consultation with industry and aims to “inform the data management policies of product and service providers who manage data on behalf of farmers.”
The data code’s first draft was published in 2020. It has since been refined and companies can now apply for certification.
NFF vice-president (now president) and certification panel chair David Jochinke says the code will give farmers a yardstick when evaluating how their on-farm data will be used.
“Data about soils, yields and finances are part of modern farming,” Jochinke says.
“Farmers need to know and trust their data is secure, not being shared or sold to third parties, and they have control of it.
“The code provides a publicly-available audit report for each product that has been assessed against the code’s six principles – transparency, fairness, control, portability, security and compliance.
“It’s important to know where in the world is our farm data being stored and is it secure, is it being de-identified, what risks are there, and what value do we get from giving a company our farm data.”
Pairtree Intelligence CEO Hamish Munro, who is also a fifth-generation farmer, says he understands the suspicion from farmers around data usage and believes it was important to become certified.
“We aggregate all the data about a farm from multiple sources, so our clients need to trust us,” he says.
“The code is a welcome game changer because it gives reassurance to the farmers through an independent certification process developed by industry.”
The WA department’s new product – the eConnect Extrata Data Sharing Platform – is also now certified under the NFF’s code.
“Being a new platform, it was imperative to get it certified so farmers know they can trust it,” the department’s business development and natural capital lead Tom Picton-Warlow says.
Farmers can look for the certification mark and can access the audit report for each certified product online at www.nff.org.au/programs/australian-farm-data-code.