Today, various data information permeates our daily lives. While the data collected has the potential to generate economic and social value far beyond what was initially expected, it also poses many barriers, including a lack of trust due to misuse.

The recently published World Development Report 2021: Data for Better Lives shows how data can help the lives of all, especially the poor in low- and middle-income countries. To address the usefulness and harm of such data, this report calls for data governance that ensures fair access to the data and prevents it from being misused. In addition, it proposes a vision of an integrated national data system that can create high-quality data and access it in a way that facilitates safe use and reuse.

In the agricultural sector, the potential of data to build a fair, efficient and agricultural and food system for the realization of sustainable development goals is highly expected as well. In the book What's Cooking: Digital Transformation of the Agrifood System, the World Bank discussed how digital technologies can accelerate the transformation of the agrifood system by improving farm efficiency, improving farmers’ access to output, input, and financial markets, strengthening quality control and traceability, and improving the design and delivery of agriculture policies. In addition, it also clarified the role that the public sector  should play to to maximize benefits and minimize risks by enabling an innovation ecosystem featuring open datasets, digital platforms, digital entrepreneurship, digital payment systems, and digital skills and encouraging equitable technology adoption. 

JIRCAS has newly started the 5th Medium to Long-term Plan from April 1, 2021. As national opinion leader on global food and environment problems, JIRCAS will further enhance its core center function by collecting and analyzing information on agriculture, forestry and fisheries in developing regions and tropical and sub-tropical regions, as well as the global food system which has become complex and diversified, and for broader dissemination of multi-dimensional information domestically and globally. 

References

World Development Report 2021: Data for Better Lives (worldbank.org)　https://wdr2021.worldbank.org/

What's Cooking: Digital Transformation of the Agrifood System　https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/35216

Contributor: KANAMORI Norihito (Information and Public Relations Office)