Toward data sharing and data-driven decisions in the livestock supply

The amount of data generated continues to grow

Farming is rapidly becoming digitally enhanced. Tags, sensors, and instruments generate increasing amounts of agricultural data that can be turned into insights. In turn, these insights can boost productivity, improve animal welfare, decrease administrative costs, and promote decisions based on data. And when data and insights are shared between supply chain actors it becomes possible to further increase the value output per raw material input.

Data sharing challenges

The potential benefits of data and insight sharing are hard to realize in an agriculture context. Firstly, data sharing requires complex interactions between numerous and highly diverse actors throughout the supply chain. Secondly, it is challenging to accurately and durably link data records to physical food items in a refinement heavy supply chain. Thirdly, it is both technically and contractually hard to protect data assets, especially when the competitive impact of data sharing is poorly understood and when the meaning of "fair use of data" is up for grabs.

Possible solutions

Data-driven decisions in supply chains made up of a great number of highly fragmented actors requires digital solutions that are both interoperable and able to aggregate disparate data. Advances in decentralized information systems, privacy preserving techniques for data handling, and the digital facilitation and enforcement of contractual agreements have enabled new ways for the meat supply chain to collaborate around data and insights. However, the potential of these technologies have yet not been demonstrated beyond simple proof of concepts. Success necessitates a solid understanding of how these advances can support various agricultural processes and add value. As such, this project relies on a multidisciplinary research approach to better understand how the aforementioned technical advancements can digitally enhance the agricultural supply chain. Specifically, we focus on the livestock supply chain; a context where improvements quickly translate into substantial environmental, economic, and competitive impacts.