Abstract:

The use of information technology has many potential benefits for the agriculture sector. It can accelerate the digital transformation and improve the development of agriculture, rural areas, and farmers; further the value of data as a new type of production factor; and promote the data dividend to benefit more farmers and agricultural practitioners. The key to ensuring these benefits is the proper construction of data information resources. As required by the Evidence-Based Policymaking Act, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has established a Data Governance Steering Committee and a Data Governance Advisory Board to lead and implement data governance initiatives. The Office of the Chief Information Officer is responsible for the overall information technology strategy and management across the USDA, including enterprise data and analytics activities. The American agricultural data can be accessed via data.gov online. The USDA carries out the construction of data information resources, develops data management information systems and data products, and provides data services, which are important in monitoring the domestic agricultural situation and assessing the trend of international agricultural development. The USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) conducts hundreds of surveys every year and prepares reports covering virtually every aspect of U.S. agriculture. The USDA Open Data Catalog is the authoritative source of publicly available USDA data. Also available are the XML version and JSON version of the catalog. Through the Ag Data Commons, which is a public, USDA-funded scientific research data catalog and repository, the USDA National Agricultural Library provides services to make data systems and data products findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable. All data represented in the Ag Data Commons carries an open license with minimal restrictions on access and use. Users do not need to register for an account or be logged in to view and access data. If the data are stored in the Ag Data Commons as a downloadable file, a download icon appears next to the file description. The Ag Data Commons metrics charts page gives a brief visual introduction to how much and what type of data we represent, as well as to how the data are used. The USDA Economics, Statistics and Market Information System contains over 2,100 publications and related datasets from several agencies of the USDA, including the NASS, the Economic Research Service, the Agricultural Marketing Service, the Foreign Agricultural Service and the World Agricultural Outlook Board. These materials cover U.S. and international agriculture and related topics. Comprehensive, accurate, and effective data can provide strong support for scientific decision-making. The U.S. open and shared agricultural data information resources are accumulating. Understanding the construction of the data management mechanisms and technical tools used by the U.S. agricultural sector is helpful for the construction and management of agricultural data information resources. The case of Open Access Online Agricultural Data can be a reference for developing agricultural data information resources.

Key words: USDA, Agricultural Data Commons, open access, data.gov, data governance