Streamline Your Mobile Bill Format for Research and Development

Mobile bill format for Research and Development

I appreciate the opportunity to offer a few brief remarks at this important conference since I co-founded Microsoft more than 40 years ago the world has witnessed unbelievable growth in digital technology and data every day the torrent of data grows larger billions of bits of information created in exchange over the internet between computers and cell phones via GPS devices and from scientific research from genomic science to finance to public health new discoveries in the use of data are making it possible for us to devise solutions and solve problems that were previously out of reach we believe now's the time for big data to solve some of our biggest challenges including those in agricultural development take cassava a powerful example of what breeding powered by the revolution in genomics can do it's hard to breed cassava the breeding cycle takes five years which means it usually takes a full decade to release a new variety but now scientists can use computer algorithms to link sequence data from the cassava genome to the performance of cassava plants in the field and this DNA sequence information is becoming much cheaper and easier to come by benefiting farmers around the world breeders and developing countries can now predict how it kind cassava seedlings will perform consequently the breeding cycle can be shortened from five years to two years and it's not just a shorter cycle it's also higher quality because breeders can focus on the most desirable traits early in the process last February I had the opportunity to visit the headquarters of the International maize and wheat Improvement Center in Mexico and see their gene Bank I learned about an ambitious project called seeds of discovery to re-sequence more than twenty thousand samples of maize and a comparable number of wheat collections to reap the benefits of big data it's important to ensure this is publicly available and shared with research and development partners only then will we be able to create a rich day ecosystem to support the knowledge intensive and location-specific Enterprise of Agriculture this is especially important in developing countries where plot variability is high farming systems are complex and farmers are growing several crops and raising livestock on small farms I'm excited about open data for agriculture and the work many of you are undertaking we must be thoughtful of course about what data is collected and how it is stored mined and shared for the greatest impact we also need to have a clear understanding of how to use that data to help small holder farmers make informed decisions about things like the choice of the best seed variety the most effective agronomic practices and market opportunities to increase agricultural productivity in a sustainable manner so what are the steps we need to take to translate this bold vision into actual resources for African governments and the small holder farmers they served first we need to create incentives for scientists and organizations to collect and share data resources relevant to the broader community in a timely and accessible manner second we must develop minimum data standards that enable inner institutional exchange of data while not being so rigid that we impede future innovation in database architecture and computing methods and third we need to ensure there is accountability through measurement and evaluation this is key to realizing the full potential of digital technology to support the rapid cycle innovation needed to provide food and nutrition security for more than nine billion people by 2050 although I couldn't be with you today I look forward to hearing about the concrete steps and timeline for implementing open data fragrant' against bold vision a reality