A database on rice promises to be the world’s largest information repository on any one crop — in one place.
The data will be displayed on a dashboard for desktops and laptops, tablets and mobile phones available free to farmers and students, academics and scientists, policy makers, local governments and the general public.
Called RiceStats, the one stop, 24/7 rice information bank at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) will store the most complete statistics and analytics database possible.
“For the first time, IRRI is bringing together wide data sets that were scattered before, to provide a picture of what’s happening in the rice economy, to know where knowledge must be invested to avoid duplication,” said Dr. Jean Balie, IRRI Agri-Food Policy Platform leader.
IRRI, which leads the ambitious data mining of sort, is looking for individuals and institutes worldwide to share any and all data on rice and partake too of the open-source platform.
“Our quest to eliminate poverty may be guided by data in this project,” said Dr. William Padolina of the National Academy of Science and Technology and formerly IRRI deputy director general.
“That data must be harnessed for the common good, “especially for poor farmers,” Padolina said.
“We are at a stage when we can see, detect, sense and know more at a time when information needs to be acted upon,” he said, pointing out that information must be properly curated then analyzed to make the proper decisions from the policy level to the ground, in the rice field.
RiceStats will provide information retrieval right at the moment when it is valued most, said Padolina, former science secretary.
Asked if it will be the world’s biggest database on any one crop, IRRI’s Marco van den Berg said, “We definitely plan to make this the most inclusive data source.”
“Size is difficult to measure when looking at databases, but since this effort will link multiple sources together the result will exceed the sum of the individual data components in terms of relevance,” said van den Berg, head of the institute’s information technology.
The database will contain information, for example, from existing household surveys conducted by IRRI globally as well as statistics from national bureaus and international organizations.
“IRRI believes the project will improve access to education and research resources,” said Balie.
Noting the use of powerful data to dismantle myths, he said preconceived ideas are sometimes projected in data.
“We must let data speak for itself. We need to package data in a powerful way. This program is about that, a better tool, a better way to present data to policy makers,” he said.
Balie observed that many questions remain unanswered. “There are so many gaps,” he said, pointing for example to how farmers grow rice and how they are connected to the market.
RiceStats is an opportunity for the data community to bring knowledge together, he said.
“For the first time, it will tap new actors who bring data together, data that were before restricted to specialties.”
Asked how data would be shared by closed economies or by corporations mindful of proprietary issues, Balie said current data available are “tremendous” and available to most anyway. “With open access, a lot can be done already,” he noted.
“Now we have the statistics to support decision making, to ensure that it is informed and evidence-based,” said Dr. Romeo Recide, a statistician and IRRI representative for the Philippines.
The RiceStats platform runs on Amazon Web Services (AWS). “This makes it faster, easier and more cost effective to move your existing applications to the cloud and build nearly anything you can imagine,” said Arvin de Torres, AWS Public Sector Account lead for the Philippines.
It will be secure so all researchers worldwide will be able to access data 24/7, he said, adding partner network includes thousands of systems integrators who specialize in AWS services and tens of thousands of independent software vendors who adapt their technology to work on AWS.
