Future internet and the agri-food sector - state of the art of future internet research -

Abstract

The agri-food sector is one of the most important sectors of the economy, encompassing agriculture, the food industry, retail, and eventually, all members of society as consumers. With its responsibility of serving consumers with food that is safe, readily available, affordable and of the quality and diversity consumers expect, the food sector needs (1) to be efficient, (2) to build on an appropriate organization and control of processes, and (3) to provide assurance on the safety and quality of its products which consumers could trust. Efficiency, process control and consumer communications are all closely related to the use of information and communication technology. Global networks, the internet, networked devices, sensors, and communication intelligence are of foremost relevance for the sustainability of the food sector in meeting its responsibility. The emerging capabilities of the Future Internet (FI) promise to overcome major barriers of the past and to support the sector in its global activities. However, the utilization of capabilities of the FI can build on a wealth of knowledge from literature, experiments and best practice activities that can provide guidance on how and where to move. Project partners within the EU SmartAgriFood project [SAF11] have collected 110 knowledge cases from various angles that capture a broad variety of different aspects related to farming, logistics, and awareness. The cooperation of 20 project partners in collecting the cases assured the consideration of a broad range of competences. Partners involve groups from research as well as from service providers, system engineering groups, standardization, and industry. The cases are related to more than 60 indicators which should support the identification of cases that might be of relevance for any emerging project scenario. The paper gives a rough overview on the orientation of the cases.