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Food production has benefitted immensely from revolutions: the prehistoric agricultural revolution that kick-started it all; the new practices and machinery that accompanied the industrial revolution; and the green revolution of the late 20^th century that saw the rapid expansion of newly designed crop varieties and agro-chemicals; all of which helped feed the world’s burgeoning populations.

But populations and demand continue to grow, and there are still profound disparities in food distribution. With new challenges arising, such as an increasingly unpredictable and harsh climate, agriculture could do with another revolution to deal with these mounting pressures.

agriculture could do with another revolution to deal with mounting pressures

GODAN (Global Open Data in Agriculture and Nutrition) launched in 2013 following a commitment by G-8 countries to share agricultural data. The organization collaborates with over 500 influential and committed partner organizations to help spearhead the open data revolution in agriculture and nutrition.

GODAN is convinced that opening up existing but currently unavailable agriculture and nutrition data will be integral to achieving Zero Hunger by 2030. Previous revolutions focussed almost exclusively on better yields, while the open data movement also aims to address the collateral damage that coincided with increased food productivity (especially after the green revolution) including issues relating to biodiversity loss, soil degradation and increases in diet-related, non-communicable disease.

The GODAN Gateway aims to help realize these goals by providing a platform for agriculture and nutrition researchers to publish projects, tools and analyses that enable and utilize open data, as quickly and openly as possible. The Gateway publishes:

• Peer reviewed articles describing open data and informatics projects relevant to agriculture and nutrition, as well as methods and tools that enable, utilize and analyse such data.
• GODAN Secretariat and Partner outputs including policy documents and progress reports.
• Poster and slide presentations focussed on open agriculture & nutrition.

GODAN Gateway aims to provide a platform for agriculture and nutrition researchers to publish projects, tools and analyses that enable and utilize open data, as quickly and openly as possible.

In line with the F1000Research model, articles can be published open access within days of submission, enabling communities to access research on urgent global issues such as hunger and malnutrition sooner. All articles and associated data, code and peer reviews are made publically available too.

The Gateway launches with 18 previously published articles; the most recent of which include:

–          An overview of AgTrials by Hyman et al. (CGIAR Centers), a database set up to store the data and information generated by field trials of, mainly, new crop varieties (pictured). The paper covers its usage patterns, current barriers to sharing and the vast potential of this resource if all trial data (the authors estimate there’s between 500,000 – 1 million out there!) were shared. This article is awaiting peer review at the time of writing.

–          An opinion from Halpert & Chappell (IAPT) arguing that applying open source principles to the distribution of seeds would better stimulate agricultural innovation than current systems involving seed patents. This article is awaiting peer review at the time of writing.

The Gateway is open to contributions from researchers working in these areas. Those working in GODAN Partner organizations are eligible for a 20% reduction in APCS and the further discounts and waivers are available for authors from AGORA countries. You can keep updated with the latest research by clicking the clock icon, which will notify you as soon as new articles, version and peer reviews are published.