addition to the government agencies (Dehnen-Schmutz et al. 2016; Irwin 2001;
Rossiter et al. 2015). Using ICT, the industry has connected all the participants on
the table, from scientists to consumers, and all sectors of stakeholders from agricultural research, crop cultivation, irrigation, fertilization, insecticide, marketing, data
analysis, and budgeting to policy making. The data from each sector has special
channels to be transferred to its downstream consumers and have significant influences on the subsequent activities. The data format is generally tables of numbers
with descriptions and maybe a little interpretation. Figure 4.1 displays a sample
report from the USDA about the agricultural exports in a week of May 2017.
11 A
purchase from a foreign firm outside the United States was made to buy
US-produced commodity. The trading information was filed to the USDA who
generated weekly reports and released them to the public. Manual reports only
Fig. 4.1 A sample report from USDA
11 https://www.fas.usda.gov/programs/export-sales-reporting-program
4 Agro-geoinformatics Data Sources and Sourcing
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