Ask any farmer the name of a weed and the response will be one of many localised names that generations of farmers have given to the same scientific name.
Mark Pawsey, Proagrica’s business development director, Australia says that concept is common for other pests, activities, and descriptors for farming practices, which is great – until we want to digitise agriculture.
“Every new app developer who wants to build a user interface to collect data is faced with the dilemma of allowing users to free type information or curating a ‘drop list’.
“Developing a drop list catalogue is a distraction for the start-up and only creates another data silo,” he said. “This same dilemma over 20 years ago set Proagrica on the path that is now agX, which lives within Proagrica’s Sirrus app, and is now a resource available to the wider agricultural industry.
“The agX Content catalogue is a database of standardised names and terminologies curated by industry domain experts and updated every few weeks. This provides app developers with the ability to provide users with a drop-down list of terms for a simple user experience and quality data collection.
“It’s a topic that probably sounds a little boring, but just ask any data scientist, programmer or researcher who has tried to make sense out of data filled with multiple different user defined terms, and you might get a different answer,” Mr Pawsey said.
“The value of data is in its ability to be understood by computers and enable automation, and the need to constantly translate user-defined terminology undermines that very value.
“The database is a set of principles proven over time and coded into a technology platform. Those principles include the need to capture data geospatially using structured data frameworks and standardised terminologies. The Content Catalogue is a critical foundation of the technology representing these principals.
“As a catalogue filtered by country and region, the Content API provides a ready-made resource for developers to use in building an app or digital solution.
“All chemical products have APVMA registrations and unlike other catalogues, it includes seeds and fertilisers, inclusive of trait and or nutrient analysis.
“Weeds, diseases and insects are provided in localised naming conventions but all with references back to the scientific name for global consistency. The same goes for machinery, crops, crop growth stage descriptors and everything else that needs to be described in the process of digitising agriculture.
“So, the next time someone is faced with the challenge of providing their users with a drop-down list or accessing a master data catalogue, the option exists to contact Proagrica and join a growing Sirrus community coalescing around what is becoming the language of agriculture.”
