Firdovsi Fikratzade: Databases are necessary step towards the digitalization of agriculture

On May 6, the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) organized an international conference entitled “Vision for the Future: Transition to Digital Agriculture” under the “Accelerating Digital Agriculture: Challenges, Perspectives and Sustainable Pathways for Data, its Access and its Ethical Use” panel in Baku.

Speakers of the panel session were Dejan Jakovljevic, FAO Chief Information Officer, Stefano Vaccari, Director General of the Italian Council for Agricultural Research and Economics, Qu Liang, Director of the Joint FAO/IAEA Center of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture, and Firdovsi Fikratzade, Director of the Agrarian Research Center, Emoke Korzenszky, Head of the International Affairs Department of the Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture, Natalia Mochu, Regional Director at the International Telecommunication Union, Regional office for the CIS, and Thule Lenneiye, Coordinator at the Kenyan Agriculture Transformation Office.

 The speakers shared their countries’ experiences in promoting and using digitalization in agriculture. Firdovsi Fikratzade, Director of the Agricultural Research Center spoke about the creation and use of databases in agriculture in Azerbaijan.

Firstly the Head of the Center spoke about the activities of the Agricultural Research Center, the databases created here: “The Center operates in 5 directions – creation of databases, analytics, monitoring and evaluation, scientific research on agroeconomics and doctoral education. One of the largest databases managed by the Center is the Electronic Agricultural Information System (E-agro). The E-agro database contains information on all farmers operating in the country. Suppliers of fertilizers, pesticides, seeds and agricultural machinery, as well as cold storages and grain elevators are also registered in the E-agro base”.

F. Fikratzade noted that the Center has a portal agrarbazar.az, which is a price base for agricultural products: “This database combines farmgate, retail and wholesale prices of all agricultural products. Prices are updated daily and weekly. The portal is open to the public”

Then the Head of the Center said that for the first time in the CIS, Farm Data Monitoring System (FDMS) was established in Azerbaijan on the basis of the methodology of the European Union’s FADN (Farm Accountancy Data Network) system: “Within the framework of FDMS, a survey is conducted among 3,500-4,000 farmers every year, and the collected survey data is entered directly into the electronic database of the Agricultural Research Center”.

The Director noted that the Center also regularly conducts surveys on farmers’ access to resources and market access, as well as various value chains: “Surveys are conducted using the CATI and CAPI systems. This system ensures the transparency and quality of surveys, allowing them to be conducted within the standards of research ethics”.

In the second part of his speech, Mr.Fikratzade spoke about the role and importance of databases in the development of the agricultural sector. He stressed that the databases play an important role in building the management of the agricultural sector at the level of modern requirements on the basis of new challenges, making the right policy decisions, developing new mechanisms for faster and better delivery of state support, digitalization of agricultural services. It also creates ample opportunities for farmers to create a favorable environment for effective work.