Research project Democratising digital farming through tailored open source and open hardware solutions
General introduction
The overall aim of the OpenAgri project is to democratize digital farming by enabling the development and deployment of innovative cost-effective energy-efficient OS software and open hardware-based ADSs that can operate at a high performance even in remote areas with weak connectivity. This will be achieved by a) ensuring the co-creation of ADSs by engaging farmers and farm advisors in participatory prototyping activities inspired by the makerspaces approach; and b) providing access to a number of reusable OS software services designed to support the edge and mixed computing
mode, and a “sociotechnical infrastructure”.
Research approach
The OpenAgri with farmers, ADS providers, agricultural consultants and scientists are guided in jointly creating and testing edge, cloud and blended ADSs that address key challenges of agricultural production. OpenAgri builds on in-depth analysis of EU agriculture. To the extent of their relevance, the results of the DIPs are also further deployed as a Decision Support Tool that allows policy makers, farmers and agricultural advisors to select the best possible cloud, edge or mixed ADS for a given set of circumstances.
Relevance/Valorization
The OpenAgri project promotes the growth of innovative, cost-effective and energy-efficient open-source software and hardware-based Agricultural Decision Support Systems (ADS). The reusable OS software services and additional socio-technical infrastructure support high-performance operations in the future, even in remote areas with weak connectivity. With its Agricultural Decision Support Tools (ADS), the OpenAgri project helps policy makers, farmers and advisors select the most appropriate tools, promoting sustainable agricultural practices and enabling dynamic adaptation to evolving policies and technologies. By engaging farmers, advisors and scientists in participatory prototyping and Sustainable Innovation Pilots (SIPs) across Europe, OpenAgri promotes the desired skills co-creative production (development) and practical testing of edge, cloud and mixed model ADS.
