Sjaak Wolfert

Information and Communication Technology as a Driver for Change in Agri-food Chains

Agri-food chains will be changed in the coming years by Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Technological trends and economic analysis suggest that ICT will be a major driver for innovation. Satellites and sensors make precision agriculture possible. More and more data are being generated in agriculture and the rest of the food chain, which helps to steer production processes with greater precision. However, there is a low level of integration of these data between actors in the food chain. By improving this ‘interoperability’ of data, processes in the food chain can be optimised and new business models developed. Data-intensive food chains have the potential to alleviate many of the current sustainability and food safety issues and contribute to human health. The economic and policy effects of such developments still need to be explored. At first sight it could lead to more closely integrated supply chains that make the farmer act as a franchise taker with limited freedom. But the opposite could also be true, with more transparency and easier options for direct sales via consumer food webs, using smart solutions for the ‘last mile’ delivery. New issues like a trade-off between transparency and privacy or pricing data might well arise.

Towards Software Mass Customization for Business Collaboration

Supply chains are being transformed into agile networks in response the increasing volatility of business environments. The dynamic nature of business collaboration in such networks imposes stringent demands on the enabling software systems. This paper proposes the application of a mass customization approach to meet the great demands on software systems for business collaboration in agile business networks. We first introduce the concept of mass customization and define requirements for software mass customization. Next, the paper presents a Future Internet platform - called FIspace - for business to business collaboration that is currently being developed within Europes Future Internet Public-Private Partnership program (FI-PPP) and that aims to provide an environment for software mass customization for business collaboration in the agriculture, food and logistics sectors.

A Future Internet Collaboration Platform for Safe and Healthy Food from Farm to Fork

It is expected that the world population will further expand from the current 6 billion to 9-11 billion people in 2050. This faces us with an enormous challenge to feed this population and still keep production within the limits of planet Earths carrying capacity. Smart Farming - i.e. the use of smart, data-rich ICT-services and applications, in combination with advanced hardware (in tractors, greenhouses, etc.) - can provide the much needed breakthroughs to producing enough good quality food in a safe and environmental-sound way. This paper introduces a Future Internet platform - called FIspace - for business to business collaboration that is currently being developed within Europes Future Internet Public-Private Partnership programme (FI-PPP). On top of that a specific implementation will be made for the area of Smart Farming that will enable a global approach for Apps and Services development. It is expected that this will overcome many of the current bottlenecks in ICT development for Smart Farming such as interoperability and handling large amounts of data, and that it will lead to more agile and affordable software solutions. In this way, this development can contribute to the global challenge of producing enough safe and healthy food for the future within planet Earths carrying capacity. New projects are planned and collaboration in Europe and beyond should further leverage the platform. The ambition is to become world-leading in this area.

Integrating ICT Applications for Farm Business Collaboration Processes Using FI Space

Agri-Food Supply Chain Networks are required to increase production and to be transparent while reducing environmental impact. This challenges farm enterprises to innovate their production processes. These processes need to be supported by advanced ICT components that are developed by multiple vendors and owned by different enterprises. These ICT components should use future internet technologies to enable integration. To make these future internet technologies easily available, the European Commission started a Future Internet Public-Private Partnership Programme (FI-PPP). As part of this FI-PPP the FIspace project started with the development of a cloud-based platform to support business to business collaboration, enabling the formation of domain specific Software Ecosystems. These FIspace Software Ecosystems should drive the development of integrated and extensible collaboration services together with an initial set of domain applications that can support business processes and enables collaboration in networks. The FIspace Platform will enable integration of legacy systems, extending their functionality. This paper presents two use case scenarios for the smart application of pesticides to protect crops and keep them safe for diseases. These scenarios provide architectural descriptions how FIspace Platform configurations can support these processes. Based on these specific use case scenarios, generic use case scenarios and architectural descriptions are derived. These results can be used to develop FIspace Platform configurations supporting collaboration processes in other domains.