German Living Lab examined the barriers for digitalization and data exchange 29.10.21

November 14, 2021

The German Living Lab meeting was organized by team from Technical University of Munich on October 29th. The stakeholders representing farmers, veterinarians, farmer organizations (milk and beef) and the ICT sector discussed the ICT barriers and potential solutions. This group identified the lack of software interfaces along the value chain, e.g. between databases of farmer organizations and veterinary software as a major barrier for a continuous data exchange. Different software standards, ICT costs, data protection and transparency, and potential increase in the market dominance of retailers create additional challenges for digitalization and data exchange. Collaboration between the ICT developers should expand to address the software integration issues. Raising the awareness of farmers on the benefits of health monitoring and facilitating the development of the “market” for the data would increase willingness to provide and exchange the data. Clear regulations on data protection and security would increase the trust and motivate all actors in the value chain.