DjustConnect celebrates fifth anniversary with solid growth
During the Agriflanders 2025 agricultural fair, ILVO is unpacking solid growth figures for DjustConnect, the neutral data-sharing platform for the agri-food sector, which celebrates its fifth anniversary this year.
With more than 3,000 registered farmers and horticulturists who can use the platform for free, 56 data connections and 17 applications, it is clear that DjustConnect is playing an important role in the digitisation of the sector.
DjustConnect is becoming well established in the agri-food sector. Users are experiencing the added value and user-friendliness. ‘Another series of technological extensions are planned for the coming years,’ says coordinator Stephanie Van Weyenberg (ILVO).
DjustConnect is a data-sharing platform that gives farmers and horticulturalists back control over their data. They decide at any time which application can (still) access certain data. The platform is run and managed by ILVO.
Five years and a firm adult
Building a reliable and smoothly functioning data-sharing system, compliant with European regulations, from scratch was quite a challenge. In 2020, DjustConnect started with one farmer and the support of 5 cooperatives: Boerenbond, Milcobel, DGZ, Arvesta and CRV. Today it is a thriving platform, with many Flemish users, and with an exemplary role in Europe.
In recent years, farmers and horticulturalists received an average of 9 requests to share their data on their personal DjustConnect dashboard. Very often they are about administrative simplification, which makes the number of consenting farmers high, once they are registered.
The connection to digital parcel information (Agriculture and Marine Fisheries Agency) remains the most popular. Applications that provide quick access to certificates, such as the app keuring spuittechniek, are gaining a lot of importance. A third growing group concerns everything to do with climate impact and sustainability. Applications related to sustainable soil and water management, such as the soil passport, rank fourth.
The majority of member farms are active in arable farming and dairy farming. Collaborations with pig farming and even sea fishing are in the pipeline.
User-friendly and administratively easy
Together with Ferm voor Agravrouwen and Odissee Hogeschool, a series of user tests were organised as part of the Flemish project Digislim farmers, to optimise the ease of use of DjustConnect. Farmers were asked what could be improved or made more logical.
Every phone call that comes in through DjustConnect's permanent helpdesk is also an opportunity for ILVO to set up the system even more intuitively.
'More than 100 registrations per month is a regular occurrence lately. That is a solid test for DjustConnect and the support team. The reception of the newcomers is going well, ‘ says ILVO's Eva Maes.
Additional tech opportunities coming in 2025 and beyond
Group dashboards
Soon it will be possible for farmers and horticulturists to manage their data in groups. DjustConnect is building an option that allows a farmer to agree to share specific data with a group, allowing him to immediately see the data of the other group members. A first application for the group dashboard revolves around level-controlled drainage. Level management is a landscape story, with stakeholders who need to be able to react collectively to weather changes and needs in their catchment area. All group members are going to see the current status of the water system in a group app. This relies on data from sensors of participating farmers, on the desired water levels on the participating plots and on weather data. Together, the group of farmers can monitor the impact of their management on each other's plots and on the entire water system in the catchment. This case is being developed in the SKAD research project, funded by the Agriculture and Marine Fisheries Agency.
Data safes
The creation of data vaults solves potential data sharing dilemmas. On the one hand, the farmer or horticulturalist very much wants advice from algorithm calculations, but on the other hand, this sometimes requires employing company-sensitive data. For example, to calculate the carbon footprint of some end product, the algorithm needs to find out which (and how much) of the raw materials and products used have an impact on the footprint. Suppose one of the producers considers the composition of its product or raw material as sensitive information (a secret recipe...) , the solution is for the algorithm to perform the calculation in the data vault via federated AI. The company-sensitive data stays in the vault and does not even leave the company.
More connection technologies
Technical developments in data sharing are rapid. Poor interoperability between different technical alternatives means that companies would have to implement multiple technologies to share data throughout the chain. DjustConnect wants to give companies maximum support, by expanding the number of connection possibilities. Technically, this involves new connectors and converters for interoperability, additional identification and login modules, options to publish data machine-readable in external data marketplaces, etc. Each company in a chain will eventually be able to stick to its own technology, and still connect. It is DjustConnect that provides the translation. With an investment of over € 600,000, ILVO and EFRO are preparing this interoperable future. DjustConnect thus becomes a genuine Flemish Agrifood dataspace.
Experimental environment for new businesses
Thanks to the Data-Economy research project (Coock+ project funded by Vlaio), ILVO is building a number of practice boxes-with-guidance. In them, companies can test which technology best suits their digital strategy before making (too) expensive internal adjustments to integrate into the data economy.
Decision
DjustConnect is at the head of the pack of data-sharing platforms in Flanders and Europe as a catalyst of the data economy. The platform brings together leading knowledge on digital strategy, technology and data regulation with deep insight into agricultural and food processes.
Contact
Greet Riebbels, ILVO communications M. 0486 260014 Greet.Riebbels@ILVO.vlaanderen.be
Stephanie Van Weyenberg, ILVO DjustConnect coordinator Stephanie.Vanweyenberg@ILVO.vlaanderen.be