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The case study report of the Malawi Digital Plant Health Service (MaDiPHS) Data Catalogue project has highlighted four major recommendations for improved data management and sharing within projects.

MaDiPHS is a project led by the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO) and funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) which aims to establish a digital agricultural plant health service for efficient pest and disease management in Malawi that will benefit over 100,000 farmers.

Ultimately, it is hoped that a tool will be developed for targeted and efficient pest and disease management of five crops (maize, tomato, cassava, groundnuts and banana) and their pests in Malawi.

Henry Mibei, CABI’s Digital Development and project manager of MaDiPHS, and Angel Li, Regional Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Coordinator authored a case study report, entitled ‘Sustainable and FAIR data sharing in practice in agriculture contexts in Malawi – successes and challenges,’ published on the Gates Open Research platform.

It explored how CABI implemented FAIR in MaDiPHS, and this case study captured learning from partners regarding FAIR implementation in the project. FAIR data is data which meets the FAIR principles of findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability (FAIR).

Four major recommendations for improved data management and sharing

The report gives four major recommendations for improved data management and sharing within and beyond the MaDiPHS project arising from insights obtained from interviews and field observations.

It is recommended that engagement with senior decision makers in the Ministry of Agriculture, the Department of E-Government, and ICT specialists should be undertaken to discuss the way forward for storing the datasets collected in the project on a national level, and a plan for maintaining the MaDiPHS data catalogue should be formulated. This will ensure ownership of the catalogue across relevant departments in government.

Furthermore, it is recommended to leverage existing policy (in draft or enacted) related to digitalization/data sharing on a national level to support the provision of data storage infrastructure, capacity strengthening on FAIR, and build ownership of the data catalogue and the FAIR data-sharing agenda at senior levels of the Ministry of Agriculture, supporting infrastructures that are foundational components of the International Platform.

The international platform being developed under the project will combine national, regional, and global input data intended for future use, such as in the development of agricultural decision-support tools and data modelling in the country and beyond.

It is also recommended that strategic partnerships should be formed with intergovernmental bodies to secure long-term investment in the capacity strengthening of researchers, scientists, and students in basic data management, FAIR data implementation, and technical capacity in maintaining ICT systems and data repositories such as the Comprehensive Knowledge Archive Network (CKAN), an open-source data portal for the storage and distribution of open data.

The MaDiPHS data catalogue builds on CKAN serves as a centralized repository for Malawi datasets related to agronomy, crop pests and diseases, landforms, soil conditions, weeds, weather, and other agricultural knowledge resources. This will enable data storage and data sharing for future research, data modelling, and the development of user-friendly digital decision support tools.

Finally, it is recommended to improve the data management planning process and include data users in the planning process before commencing new data collection to better meet the needs of data users.

Data collection and sharing are key components of a successful initiative

The report highlights how in many data-rich development projects, effective data collection and sharing are key components of a successful initiative. The types of data collected may include but are not limited to research data, advisory materials, reports, and monitoring and evaluation data.

However, not all projects consider the sustainability of the datasets collected, meaning the data shared only has limited scope in a particular project. The data is, therefore, usually kept (if indeed it is kept at all) by an institution or an individual, until someone is interested in the insights of the research and asks about the availability of the data.

Dr Jonathan Mkumbira, National Coordinator of MaDiPHS, said, “Data is usually just data and is not supposed to be shared with others, but the information and insights generated from the data are most important. Only when people are interested in the insights do they then ask if the researcher can share the data.”

Mr Blessing Susuwele, National Coordinator of the Department of Agricultural Extension Services (DAES) in Malawi said that before data sharing people were being deprived of getting information that they were supposed to get.

“We didn’t want to release it, because we were afraid that if they got access to this data and information, they might change it,” he said.

However, he added that with the training and signing of Data Sharing Agreements (DSAs), some sections of the datasets could be released with conditions added on.
Datasets are now being widely shared and used for pest modelling
Seven DSAs have been signed between NIBIO and the seven data holders. Datasets are now being widely shared and used for pest modelling in the project.

The International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) has been able to use the datasets shared to generate four pest risk models for the MaDiPHS project which will be integrated into the national digital plant health service and the International Platform.

Overall, the positive experience of MaDiPHS partners regarding FAIR data sharing has demonstrated the importance of integrating FAIR data management at the outset of project proposal development.

This engagement approach has enhanced partners’ understanding of the value and benefits of FAIR and responsible data management, trust building between data holders and users, and knowledge transfer of FAIR data at an institutional level.

Additional information

Main image: Mr Haswell Dambolachepa, plant pathologist of the Department of Agricultural Research Services, and Mr Blessing Susuwele taking part in an interview that formed part of the report’s findings (Credit: CABI).

The report can be read in full here.

The first report of how FAIR is operationalised in the MaDiPHS project can be read in full here.

Project page

Find out more about how CABI is working in partnership to establish a digital agricultural plant health service for efficient pest and disease management in Malawi that will benefit over 100,000 farmers from the project page here.

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