EU Code of conduct on agricultural data sharing by contractual agreement
A premise for sustainable innovation in the agricultural sector is that the data needs to be shared. Agriculture was the first sector responding to the Commission call for sectorial self-regulatory approaches on data sharing. The sector has good reasons to move fast. Advanced technologies such as sensors, cloud computing, machine learning, and artificial intelligence can significantly generate tonnes of data and change the scope and organisation of animal breeding and farming. Availability of real-time data, forecasting and tracking information can lead to automated and autonomous farm operations that can change the way we both produce and consume in the near future. Better efficiency and management and also more transparency are expected but also the privacy of breeders and farmers will be impacted.
The EU code of conduct on agricultural data sharing was created jointly by the signatory organisations, including EFFAB, to provide support on contractual relations and provide guidance on re-using and sharing agricultural data.
As a basis, the code of conduct provides definitions for roles and processes in data sharing in agriculture. Based on those definitions the code of conduct introduces default principles related to five categories:
- Attribution of the underlying rights to derive data (Also referenced as data ownership)
- Data access, control and portability
- Data protection and transparency
- Privacy and security
- Liability and intellectual property right
The principles clarify originator and operator of data and protect the sovereignty of the data originator.