This “Agriculture Digital Service” strategic initiative has sought to explore how “openness” could be applied to assist in overcoming structural constraints that inhibit the scale necessary to more effectively service Jamaica’s agricultural community.In pursuit of this objective the strategic initiatives is applying emergent best practice in government digital services field--as championed by leading organizations like the United Kingdom’s Government Digital Service and City of Buenos Aires’s CTO office--and an evolving theory of change for how data collaborations facilitated by shared open infrastructure can enable access to and the creation of high quality agricultural data assets and information services. The outcomes were that the initiative would aid in the closing of existing data gaps, improve the information available to actors throughout the agricultural sector and explore the implications of an increasing digital and connected public service on data privacy and ownership rights of farmers.

The goals of strategic initiative are defined by three pillars:
● The development of a technology platform that respects RADA’s responsibility as custodian of the farmer registry while better aligning with the information needs of data consumers across the MInistry of Agriculture and external to the Government of Jamaica.
● The design of consent models that facilitate active participation of farming communities in decisions about how data about them is being used.
● Influencing the ongoing policy discussion on open data and data privacy within the Government of Jamaica through lessons learned and pilot demonstrations

With the funding support of the International Development Research Centre of Canada under the OD4D program, SlashRoots undertook this Agriculture Strategic initiative with the Rural Agricultural Development Authority. This report provides a summary of the body of work that was undertaken by the SlashRoots team between January 2016 - November 2016. This document provides an overview of the process, findings and lessons learned from SlashRoots’ engagement over the project period.

The Developing the Caribbean Open Data Conference and Code Sprint (DevCa) is a
multi-country event, comprising a two day conference and 24 hour developer competition,
focused on open innovation, open data and civic tech trends. The third staging of the event took
place from April 11-12, 2013. This year’s regional participation included 5 locations across:
● Jamaica
● Trinidad & Tobago
● Dominican Republic
● Guyana
● Cuba.

This project was conceptualized with the basic objectives of:
a) Exploring the feasibility of a Pilot Project that applies the concept of OpenData to Agriculture
Production in Jamaica
b) Building a demonstration prototype of an application that illustrates how open data can improve directly
and indirectly the efficiency of value chains in Agriculture in Jamaica, with emphasis on small farmers.
This final project report describes three streams of outcomes that have emerged from the initiative:
i. Development of technology artifacts to demonstrate the concepts of OpenData
ii. Engagement of key constituents and stakeholders through high visibility events
iii. Future possibilities & opportunities for OpenData initiatives in Jamaica and the Caribbean

Interim Report on the Code-for-the Caribbean Fellowship engagement with RADA