The Agro-food, Rural and Environmental Observatory of the Government of the Generalitat celebrated this Wednesday the event "The cultivation of data", a meeting focused on highlighting "the role of data as a tool for knowledge and support for decision-making in the agri-food, rural, and environmental fields".
According to the Government's statement, the event has been promoted by the Department of Culture in collaboration with the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), the Educational Resource Centers for Students with Hearing Disabilities (CREDA), and the Annual Technology Transfer Plan (PATT).
The Secretary General of the Department of Agriculture, Cristina Massot, emphasized the observatory's involvement with the entire sector and highlighted the weight of its public function. In her opinion, the organization plays a key role because "The Observatory responds to an increasingly evident need: the growing demand for clear, rigorous, and updated information".
During the event, a presentation from the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (EC) focused on open and interoperable data within the community framework was offered, in which a practical case of data opening applied to the agricultural and environmental field was shown.
Contrast and harmonize information
The program also included a round table dedicated to the value of validating, contrasting, and harmonizing the data behind official statistics, with the participation of representatives from Eurostat, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Statistical Institute of Catalonia (Idescat), the Barcelona Provincial Council, and the UPC.
Furthermore, the session examined the role played by the Observatory within the sector through a specific table on the past, present, and future projection of this tool. Its website accumulates more than 4.5 million visits and its interactive viewer already records more than 100,000 actions performed by users.
Another of the tables addressed transparency in food chain data, with the presence of representatives from the Public Administration and various sector agents. In this space, questions were raised about how information is used throughout the entire chain, from production to distribution.