Abstract:

In China, long-term scientific and technological research has helped establish a basis for a national agricultural work system for the whole country. That process has involved obtaining agricultural data in 10 different fields; it has laid a solid basis for obtaining further agricultural data. Those efforts are very important toward promoting agricultural and technological innovation as well as supporting agricultural production. By systematically establishing national agricultural experimental stations, it is necessary to enhance observation, monitoring, collection, anylysis, arrangement, excavation, and shared use of agricultural data.. It could help provide basic support for agricultural research and technology, reforming such research and technology, and policy making. This kind of research effort should involve the following: obtaining metadata standards related to agricultural observation data sharing; observing and analyzing agricultural production factors and related dynamic changes; and clarifying internal relations and their development rules. And it would offer a basic means of assessing previous developments and ongoing changes related to agricultural production factors; it would provide a necessary foundation for promoting the development of agricultural science and technology as well as offering a basis for formulating agricultural policies. In this regard, sharing important agricultural observation data would be an important part of developing an innovative system for joint use of scientific and technological data in China. It is evident that an analysis of such data covers many academic fields (including semantics). The results of this study indicate that data sharing is not an easy task. Further, agricultural observation data are typically characterized by non-repeatability. On the basis of shared scientific research, this article analyzes the standards, structure, management systems, and interoperability of agricultural metadata. This paper discusses the characteristics and management application systems for agricultural metadata; it offers suggestions toward promoting the development of agricultural science and technology in China as well as furthering international cooperation and exchange.

Key words: observation data, scientific data management, metadata, data sharing, metadata standard, scientific data