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 last day was devoted to a workshop to develop policy propositions, based on the collection of expressions from the OFE2021 attendees through a collaborative platform opened during the conference. A special issue of the Agronomy for Sustainable Development journal will be published as an outcome of the conference. In preparation to this conference, four virtual workshops on the themes mentioned above were conducted in May 2021 under the auspices of the ISPA. Each of these workshops was an opportunity to gather contributors from diverse regions of the world to exchange and establish a shared background for the conference.

 

The total number of conference participants was 170, with 39 people present in Montpellier and 141 on-line. Most of them were researchers but the conference also attracted representatives from farmers’ associations, start-ups, NGOs, and policy-makers. The conference achieved outstanding geographical representation with 36 countries (54% from Europe, 16% from North America, 8% from South America, 8% from Asia, 8% from Africa and 6% from Oceania).
The conference gathered a total of 140 scientific submissions from nearly 100 authorial teams (30 from invited individuals, 66 through e-presentations). These included 80 presentations (30 invited presentations at the plenaries, and 50 short recorded e-presentations replacing posters, a selection of 20 of which were presented at the plenaries) and 50 papers (including 40 developing the recorded e-presentation videos).