#OFE2021

The First Conference on Farmer-Centric On-farm Experimentation — Digital Tools for a Scalable Transformative Pathway was held on October 13th-15th 2021 in Montpellier, France.

#OFE2021 Abstract Submission Deadline Extended

Abstracts for #OFE2021 are accepted until June 30, 2021. Submit your 150-word abstract for an e-presentations on On-Farm Experimentation activities or research. Topics addressing lessons learnt as well as research results are suitable and encouraged.

1. Value Creation

Monday May 10th (8-10 a.m. Chicago = 3-5 p.m. Paris) “Farmer-centric On-Farm Experimentation”, or “OFE”, is a shared, self-sustaining process of change. Value is essential to its development and success. With the aim of enhancing interest, trust and investment in OFE, this webinar will ask: How is value created? How is value shared? Who gains from OFE? How can science and technology improve OFE processes? Experience suggests that farmers need little persuasion to engage; on-farm experimentation is a process they already do and understand. But to scale up, we need to recognize how OFE creates ...

2. People and Processes

Wednesday May 12th (8-10 a.m. Chicago = 3-5 p.m. Paris) How can we ensure that digitally enabled On-Farm Experimentation avoids the classic “Technology Fallacy,” and instead centres transformation around people? Recent research from MIT demonstrated that “people are the real key to digital transformation” (Kane 2019). Change is as much about us and our organizations as it is about the technology. Change occurs when people change, transformation occurs when individual changes scale up through their networks and their organizations. The underlying change throughout is in knowledge and shared culture. This webinar will explore various examples of ...

3. Data and Analytics

Monday May 17th (8-10 a.m. Chicago = 3-5 p.m. Paris) How should we rethink the planning and analysis of on-farm experiments with farmers’ interests in mind? How should we organize and curate data and metadata for this purpose? Farmer-centric experimentation has great potential to improve the design and adoption of better farm management practices. All stakeholders, including farmers, commercial product and service providers, scientists and policy makers, must seize this opportunity to improve farm practices in terms of precision, efficiency and impact. From smallholders to broadacre farmers, from local to greater scales, well-targeted analytics can be deployed to ...

3. Data and Analytics

Monday 17th (8-10 a.m. Chicago = 3-5 p.m. Paris) How should we rethink the planning and analysis of on-farm experiments with farmers’ interests in mind? How should we organize and curate data and metadata for this purpose? Farmer-centric experimentation has great potential to improve the design and adoption of better farm management practices. All stakeholders, including farmers, commercial product and service providers, scientists and policy makers, must seize this opportunity to improve farm practices in terms of precision, efficiency and impact. From smallholders to broadacre farmers, from local to greater scales, well-targeted analytics can be deployed to exploit ...

4. Policy Linkages

Wednesday May 19th (8-10 a.m. Chicago = 3-5 p.m. Paris) Policy, legislation and investments are necessary to support transformation through OFE which is, essentially, a local process that engages farmers and others around specific changes on the farm. Currently, initiatives around OFE are happening in spite of poorly aligned institutional structures and incentives within the agricultural sciences, with funding mechanisms, career paths and norms favouring traditional experimentation. Harnessing the transformational potential of OFE for agricultural sciences and innovation requires more strategic institutional alignment. To scale up, OFE will need nurturing policy, well-designed legislation and secure investment. This webinar will ...

4. Policy Linkages

Wednesday 19th (8-10 a.m. Chicago = 3-5 p.m. Paris) Policy, legislation and investments are necessary to support transformation through OFE which is, essentially, a local process that engages farmers and others around specific changes on the farm. Currently, initiatives around OFE are happening in spite of poorly aligned institutional structures and incentives within the agricultural sciences, with funding mechanisms, career paths and norms favouring traditional experimentation. Harnessing the transformational potential of OFE for agricultural sciences and innovation requires more strategic institutional alignment. To scale up, OFE will need nurturing policy, well-designed legislation and secure investment. This webinar will present ...

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ASD OFE call

ATTENTION: 15th ICPA Now a Hybrid Conference!

The 15th International Conference on Precision Agriculture will be held in Minneapolis, Minnesota June 26-29, 2022. Due to continued concerns over Covid and travel, ICPA will be hybrid, offering both in-person and  virtual participation!    Registrants Now Have A Virtual Option In addition to the live, in-person event, registrants will now have the option of participating virtually as well. Registrants will be able to join the meeting live or remotely and will have access to all papers submitted to the conference.   Abstract Submission Extended To better serve the global precision agriculture community, ICPA has reopened abstract ...

Call for papers on Farmer-Centric On-Farm Experimentation in Agronomy for Sustainable Development

Here is an exceptional opportunity to let the scientific community know about your On-Farm Experimentation (OFE) work. Contributions are most welcome to this Virtual Issue focusing on recent advances relative to Farmer-Centric On-Farm Experimentation (OFE). It coincides with OFE2021, the 1st Farmer-Centric On-Farm Experimentation Conference (13–15 October 2021) and is open to everyone. Indeed, participation in OFE2021 is not mandatory to submit OFE-related work to this special issue. Submissions end on March 1, 2022. The conference was supported by the OECD—CRP Sustainable Agricultural Systems, DigitAg, INRAE and the International Society of Precision Agriculture (ISPA).  

Convenors

Dr. Véronique Bellon Maurel, INRAE, Director of #DigitAg, France Dr. Nicolas Tremblay, International Society of Precision Agriculture (ISPA), Canada Prof. Simon Cook, Murdoch University, Centre for Digital Agriculture, Australia

Disclaimer

The opinions expressed and arguments employed in this report are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the OECD or of the governments of its Member countries.  

e-Presentations and/or short paper

These e-presentations are made as a short video (4 min recording) for publication on the OFE2021 website (by June 30) A short paper (5 pages; 1500–2000 words) can be coupled to the e-presentation or standalone for publication in the Conference Proceedings (by September 15)

Expected outputs

Framework for OFE that identifies transformational value processes; organisation for social capitalisation; functions for digital technologies and linkages to policy, legislation and investment Technical summary for policy-makers Network of specialists to execute further steps in OFE development

Farmer-Centric OFE

Format of the Conference

Conference presentation format for 100–150 delegates to share information around four themes. See the program here. In addition, 200 delegates attending by video-streaming are expected. Two-day (13th-14th of October) information sharing from global specialists about current developments in digital agriculture, value creation, innovation systems and policy landscapes surrounding OFE. French/English translation. Third day (15th of October) field tour and focus session to pull down key messages and critical requirements for policy change to support farmer-centric digital transformation.

Major Highlights From the Presentations

Experience suggests that farmers need little persuasion to engage in OFE as experimenting on the farm is a process they routinely do and therefore understand. Alongside learning from peers, experimenting is, by far, the dominant learning process of farmers globally, with this universality acknowledged at the roundtable and throughout the conference. But beyond farmer-led OFE, scaling up collaborative farmer-centric OFE requires defining precisely how the process creates value for varied stakeholders, how this value is shared, and how scientific disciplines can contribute. This is necessary as impact pathways for OFE contrast markedly with those of conventional research.   The conference ...

More information

Download the 2-page introduction to the Conference (‘PDF‘ or ‘see online‘) Subscribe to the Conference News for updates

OFE Data Webinar Content

OFE People Webinar Content

OFE People Webinar Content 2

OFE Policy Webinar Content

OFE Value Creation Webinar Content

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Opportunity to Showcase your OFE Work

The 15th ICPA in June 2022 is an opportunity to virtually present your work in dedicated OFE sessions. Let’s continue the conversation initiated with the spring 2021 webinar series and the #OFE2021 Conference! Submit an abstract here.  

Participation

The OFE2021 conference “Farmer-centric On-Farm Experimentation—Digital Tools for a Scalable Transformative Pathway” was conducted in a hybrid format from October 13th to 15th in Montpellier. It was organized by INRAE- DigitAg and the ISPA OFE-C (International Society of Precision Agriculture, On-Farm Experimentation Community). The conference was structured around invited speakers (plenary and short presentations) addressing the 4 themes presented in the pre-conference webinars: Value creation, People and processes, Data analytics, and Policy linkages. The use of e-presentations (short videos), instead of posters, was an innovation proposed as a means of engaging in a hybrid conference environment. The ...

Preparatory workshop-webinars

The Conference will be preceded by four thematic workshop webinars in May. These webinars will each be prepared by a dedicated working group.  Value creation: through co-producing and sharing knowledge People and processes: avoiding the tech fallacy, building ecosystem innovation platforms Data and analytics: large-scale agronomy, experimental designs, aggregation, metadata Policy linkages: to support innovation, and for data governance  

Purpose

To share global experience of farmer-centric On-Farm Experimentation (OFE) To explain the innovation process that OFE represents, as an alternative to the top-down, researcher-directed process that currently predominates How OFE creates value to sustain itself; The alternative innovation pathways of the OFE bottom-up processes; How OFE offers a pathway for valorising digital technologies in agriculture; and The interplay between OFE practice on the ground and supporting policy and investment.

Recordings of the #OFE2021 May Webinar Series are Available

The four #OFE2021 webinars recordings are now available at https://www.ispag.org/Events/OFE both in full-length and in individual presentations formats.   Value Creation. OFE creates value for varied stakeholders, value is shared, and scientific disciplines can contribute.   People and Processes. People are the real key to digital transformation. Transformation occurs when individual changes scale up through their networks and their organizations.   Data and Analytics. Appropriate procedures and well-targeted analytics can be deployed to exploit the valuable data and metadata collected on the farm.   Policy Linkages. Currently, initiatives around OFE are happening ...

Register now to #OFE2021

Register now for a virtual attendance and no later than October 8. Discounts are available for ISPA members, students, attendees from low and middle-income countries, non-profit organizations, farmers, and farmer organizations.  

Rewards

The 20 best e-presentations will also be shown during the conference plenary sessions, and 4 will be selected for the “Best Scientific Committee Award” and “Best Audience Award.” The best three papers will be selected by the Scientific Committee for “Best Conference Paper Award,” with prizes in the form of financial support to publish open access into a Special Issue associated with the Conference. Full details available on the website.

Supported by

The conference is supported by the OECD Co-operative Research Program (CRP) “Biological resource management for sustainable agricultural systems,” under Theme 3 — Transformational technologies and innovation. It is organised by INRAE Montpellier and the On-Farm Experimentation Community (OFE-C) of the International Society of Precision Agriculture (ISPA).   Support is also provided by Agropolis Foundation, Occitanie Region, MUSE (Montpellier University of Excellence), Agreenium, #Digitag, RMT NAEXUS, RMT Modelia and Occitanum.

The #OFE2021 Conference

Following the webinars, the First Conference on Farmer-Centric On-farm Experimentation — Digital Tools for a Scalable Transformative Pathway is scheduled for October 13th-15th 2021 in Montpellier, France (or virtually if need be).

The #OFE2021 Webinar Series - Two more to go!

The On-Farm Experimentation Community is pleased to announce that the first two #OFE2021 webinars (1. Value creation; 2. People and processes) were great successes with a total of 200+ participants from all over the world. Next week, two more webinars will be presented (3. Data and analytics; 4. Policy linkages). Don’t miss them! View the session details below and be sure to register for the last two webinars! Free and open to all.  

Two More Promising OFE Webinars

The first two OFE webinars (1. Value Creation; 2. People and Processes) were great successes with a total of 200+ participants from all over the world. Next week, two more webinars will be presented (3. Data and Analytics; 4. Policy Linkages). Don’t miss them!  

Website for Further Details

All presentations will be available on the website (https://ofe2021.com/videos-papers) as soon as the post-production phase is completed. A one-year embargo will be maintained for registrants after which the content will be open to all.  

What the Conference Was About

Traditional agricultural research means much to scientists but little to farmers. Statistical significance criteria much beloved by researchers are not related to the scope, practical meaning or usefulness of experimental results to farmers. Scientists and farmers deal differently with uncertainties. The spatial and temporal variations that farmers manage in crop and livestock production are typically far greater than any trial treatment effect. Farmers are then unable to scale up recommendations within their farm management system. The widespread application of Fisher’s statistical methodology (dating back to the 1920s) has allowed for a simplified evaluation of papers to be published ...