Improving agricultural knowledge management: The AgTrials experience

Abstract

Background: Opportunities to use data and information to address challenges in international agricultural research and development are expanding rapidly. The use of agricultural trial and evaluation data has enormous potential to improve crops and management practices. However, for a number of reasons, this potential has yet to be realized. This paper reports on the experience of the AgTrials initiative, an effort to build an online database of agricultural trials applying principles of interoperability and open access. Methods: Our analysis evaluates what worked and what did not work in the development of the AgTrials information resource. We analyzed data on our users and their interaction with the platform. We also surveyed our users to gauge their perceptions of the utility of the online database. Results: The study revealed barriers to participation and impediments to interaction, opportunities for improving agricultural knowledge management and a large potential for the use of trial and evaluation data. Conclusions: Technical and logistical mechanisms for developing interoperable online databases are well advanced. More effort will be needed to advance organizational and institutional work for these types of databases to realize their potential.

Rank‐based data synthesis of heterogeneous trials to identify the effects of climatic factors on the reaction of Musa genotypes to black leaf streak disease

“…We retrieved data from the three main public data repositories currently storing field evaluation data on Musa genotypes: AgTrials, MusaBase, and the Musa Germplasm Information System (MGIS) (Bauchet et al., 2018; Hyman et al., 2017; Ruas et al., 2017). From each repository, we selected data that fulfilled the following criteria: Contains evaluations of Musa genotype reactions to BLSD Contains geographic coordinates of trial locations Contains the start and end dates of the evaluation period (i.e., planting date, and either shooting or harvesting date) Genotypes evaluated at least partially overlap among trials (see connectivity in Section 2.5) …”

Improving agricultural knowledge management: The AgTrials experience

“…The project team administered a survey in August 2016 to evaluate the perspective of the AgTrials user base (survey results available from https://en.surveymonkey.net/results/SM-YLGDFPQG/ ) and survey data accompanies this article ( Dataset 1 ; Hyman et al , 2017 ). As an incentive to participate in the survey, users were offered the possibility to enter a draw for a smartphone, an incentive reflected in the 44% response rate of users who received an invitation.…”

“…Dataset 1: Anonymous individual responses and survey questions. doi, 10.5256/f1000research.11179.d155255 ( Hyman et al , 2017 ).…”

The Australian digital Online Farm Trials database increases the quality of systematic reviews and meta-analyses in grains crop research

“…For crop productivity to be improved and sustained within a changing climate, Australian grain growers will need to adopt alternative management practices, new technologies and superior crop varieties developed to grow under various environmental scenarios. Each year, the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) receives around AUD200 million in investment and invests in hundreds of new research projects (https://grdc.com.au/research/areas-of-investment#:~: text = The%20GRDC%20receives%20around%20%24200, profitability%20of%20Australia's%20 grain%20industry), the findings from which have enormous potential to improve both crops and management practices (Hyman et al 2017).…”