Feasibility of a joint agricultural data space operated by established service providers: a Bavarian perspective

In Germany’s federal state Bavaria a network of advisory and service providers, called “Verbundberatung”, offers various agricultural services to arable and livestock farmers. The network has great success and is jointly responsible for the high value-adding agricultural sector in this region. However, improved cooperation regarding data exchange would further strengthen the services. Based on the existing organizational and technical structures of the partners, the opportunities and risks of a self-initiated “Bavarian Agricultural Data Space (ADR.BY)” are elaborated within the frame of a participatory feasibility study. The aim of the study was to develop a foundation for information and decision-making that supports a common architecture. This architecture serves as a potential blueprint for the holistic integration of processes, applications, knowledge, data, and IT infrastructure and prepares for data exchange with stakeholders from the economy, society, and administration. Our work reveals that farmers and their partners are generally open-minded to new data management strategies. Nonetheless, adopting new approaches requires fundamental standardization based on emerging concepts.