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International advisory group of experts develops standardization roadmap on smart farming

While the world's population is growing, the consequences of climate change are also having an increasing impact on food production. Agriculture is therefore facing major challenges and pressure is increasing to become more productive and efficient. With its international supply chains, food production today functions globally, so its transformation must also take place globally. For this reason, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has set up the "ISO Strategic Advisory Group on Smart Farming" (ISO SAG Smart Farming) at the request of the German Institute for Standardization (DIN). Currently, this group is working on the first international standardization roadmap on the subject of smart farming - the use of modern information and communications technology in agriculture. All interested experts in Germany are invited to contribute via the DIN.ONE cooperation platform - the aim is to develop a strategic roadmap for international standardization in the field of smart farming for the future and to involve all relevant stakeholders in the process. The roadmap is to be published in Fall 2022.

Focus on the entire value chain

Digitalization, especially through smart farming, can significantly help to meet the challenges of agriculture. For this to succeed on a large scale, standards and specifications are needed that contribute to uniform interfaces and data formats. For work on the first international Standardization Roadmap Smart Farming, the ISO SAG will analyse and describe the standardization landscape in this field. It will look not only at agricultural production, but at the entire food value chain as well. At the same time, it is reviewing the standardization landscape with regard to the fulfilment of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The group will thus identify needs for standardization in the field of smart farming and derive corresponding recommendations for action. Sub-groups are working on various globally relevant topics: Crop production, livestock, urban farming, terminology and semantics, social aspects, supply chains, OEM, climate adoption and environment and data.  DIN and the US standards organization ANSI (American National Standards Institute) jointly lead the advisory group.

Bringing in national interests

Experts from 27 countries are working together in the ISO SAG Smart Farming. They were delegated by the ISO members interested in participating and are bringing in the national contents and interests of the participating countries in a bundled way. Germany is represented in this group by Wilfried Aulbur, Senior Partner at Roland Berger. Aulbur has many years of international experience in the agricultural sector and is strongly networked in this area. DIN has also set up a national Smart Farming steering group to represent German interests. In it, actors from politics, industry, research, society and consumer protection accompany the activities in terms of content at national level. The first working results of the ISO SAG Smart Farming as well as contact opportunities will be available on DIN.ONE and can be discussed and commented on in working groups. The contact person is Johannes Lehmann, Head of Business Development Smart Farming at DIN.