Perspectives

Is There A Future For An OpenFarmMap?

The beginnings of geographic information system (GIS) were built on a foundation of landscape mapping and related to agriculture. Traditionally,  the production of mapping for agriculture has been primarily oriented around government agencies and organisations. The production of food led to exports and and imports and often încluded government agencies. Governance linked to food production crossed many organisations from water to disease to economics. There are examples of openly produced mapping efforts today, OpenStreetMap and OpenMarineMap come to mind. Can a case be made for an OpenFarmMap?

OpenStreetMap and OpenMarineMap are examples of open mapping efforts that include the collection of spatial data through both professionals and citizen participation.  While these two examples have proven effective and useful, they largely involved the collection of data from public areas including roadways and waterways. The collection and aggregation of data to form an OpenFarmMap would necessarily involve privately held lands and would be based on landowners establishing a need for participation, while recognising the increased visibility of their operations.

While governments may provide useful for collecting 1:50,000 or greater mapping data and producing maps, a collection of 1:1000 or higher scale maps – a improved local scale – would provide more useful details and be of higher value for both landscape operations but also the planning of long term strategies.

So what would the value of such an approach be and why would a private producer want to ever participate in such a scheme? A few reason come to mind.

Compliance and the ened to document operations for regulatory and legislation purposes would perhaps be one reason. However, the ability to more closely manage the land base and understand operations within a regional context would be another. Watershed management, for example, would require the document and inclusion of spatial data that crosses ownership properties and boundaries.

While individual producers could produce map related products for their operations for the purposes of establishing carbon credits and other economic schemes, ecological services related to conservation, biodiversity and carbon exchange would likely cross boundaries once again.

Trends involving food quality issues would similarly be oriented toward regions and other local scale dynamics.

OpemFarmMap would seem hinged upon local and regional dynamics and those issues relating to similar scales that require continuity across local scales. ^These might include water, disease, carbon, biodiversity and other tangible and non-tangible variables that are landscape related.