Introduction to AgGateway Spring

AgGateway: What it is A non-profit, collaborative membership association Focused on helping growers, retailers and their supply chain partners improve productivity, profitability and sustainability. AgGateway activities help companies reduce the cost and frustration of managing and exchanging complex data. Broad representation across ag segments Non-profit funded by: Member dues Subscriptions Activity fees 2

AgGateway’s Mission To promote, enable and expand eBusiness in agriculture. 3

Business activities between companies supported by information and communication technologies eBusiness 4

Linking information resources among various computer systems and their users Connectivity 5

6 Requirements and best practices used to establish uniform business processes. Standard

Why eBusiness? eBusiness is critical to address: Increasing operational complexity Need to manage more and more data Increasing regulatory requirements International and domestic market pressures And at an even larger level… To support demands on agriculture to produce more food with fewer resources. 7

Growing demand for food – Growing pressure on agriculture 8 Source: USDA

How ag companies say they’ll address these challenges: Streamlining the supply chain Genetics, biotechnology Precision agriculture Sustainability, food safety practices Each of these areas requires – or benefits from – eBusiness solutions 9

What’s the big idea? To enable the entire agriculture community to use eBusiness to exchange information to: Improve business processes Improve productivity throughout the supply chain – from crop inputs to the farmer Streamline the supply chain Enhance traceability and food safety Support sustainable agricultural practices 10

Focus on implementation 1 st step: Developing and adopting industry standards, guidelines and other means to enable eBusiness Critical next step: Implementation AgGateway is Focused on Implementation – Making eBusiness a Reality in the Ag Industry! 11

AgGateway: Who’s involved? More than 230 member companies Members include ag retailers, manufacturers of ag inputs (e.g., seed, crop nutrition, crop protection, feed, grain, equipment), distributors, companies supporting precision ag, and software and data service providers. Business and information technology (IT) professionals from these member companies collaborate on AgGateway activities. Companies work together to develop and implement common industry standards and tools. 12

AgGateway membership growth reflects the need/desire for eBusiness

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What we’re working on at AgGateway Precision ag Contracts, ordering, shipping and invoicing in seed, feed, grain, crop protection, other sectors Regulatory compliance Paperless fertilizer tonnage reporting to states Much more… The result: eConnectivity helps companies and growers with strategic planning, inventory and resource management, traceability, more accurate reporting, better resource allocation. 15

Streamlining the Supply Chain 16

Order to invoice Contracts, ordering, shipping and invoicing: eConnectivity achieved between many trading partners within the seed, feed, grain, crop protection, crop nutrition and other sectors. The benefits: More accurate reporting, fewer manual errors and better resource allocation. 17

Precision Agriculture 18

Precision Ag Today’s farmers working with increasing amounts of data, but often their systems and equipment can’t exchange that data easily – the systems can’t “talk” to each other. This is a complex problem. AgGateway’s Precision Ag Council: More than 120 companies collaborating on ways growers can better manage data in field operations, precision water management, telematics, and crop insurance and compliance reporting. 19

Precision Ag Standardized Precision Ag Data Exchange (SPADE) Project, completed the new ADAPT Toolkit – a set of software tools designed to simplify field operations data exchange. Precision Ag Irrigation Leadership (PAIL) Project, implementing data exchange in connection with irrigation work orders. Result once implemented: growers and ag retailers able to securely exchange data between software programs and systems. Easier for growers to manage farm resources and focus on profitability. 20

Compliance Reporting and More 21

Paperless Fertilizer Tonnage Reporting A successful AgGateway project; now an industry-wide initiative Goal: To achieve paperless fertilizer tonnage reporting by the end of Five states are now accepting live data, two states are working toward eConnectivity, and 29 states have expressed interest in engaging. See 22

Data Privacy and Security Farmers are concerned about data privacy, use and security. AgGateway Data Privacy and Security Committee has published a white paper that provides a framework that industry companies can use to help establish the data privacy and use standards, practices and procedures for their farm customers or business operations. As with all AgGateway activities, this is a collaborative effort, distilling ideas and input from multiple members of the ag community. 23

How AgGateway operates 24

How is AgGateway organized? Small number of staff Councils (by industry segment) Standing committees Standards and Guidelines, Data Privacy & Security, Membership, Conference, etc. Project teams and working groups 25

AgGateway: a Rough Org Chart MembersCouncils Project Teams Board of Directors Management Team Committees 26

Currently 7 active councils 27

Councils Industry segment councils operate with relative independence. Each has a chair and co-chair. Conference calls, face-to-face at AgGateway meetings. Decide on and manage the priorities and project work that make eBusiness a reality. The chairs and co-chairs of each council comprise the overall AgGateway Board of Directors. 28

10 Collaborative Committees

eBusiness Resources 30

Ag Industry Identification System (AGIIS) AGIIS is an interactive database that houses eBusiness data for agriculture. AGIIS provides the unique identifiers and common data elements that allow companies to “sync” and set the stage for eBusiness transactions. AGIIS does not process transactions; it is a directory resource that facilitates electronic communication. 31

AGIIS Contains 5 million unique entities, 930,000 licenses used in seed license management, and over 140,000 ag products - crop protection chemicals, seed, etc. Identifiers used to support key business transactions such as electronic ordering, sales reporting, product tracking, etc. Records are added and maintained by the AGIIS user community. 32

How to Access AGIIS? Anyone is welcome to search AGIIS for a Global Location Number (GLN) tied to a business, consumer or location – this free access is intended to promote and enable eBusiness in ag. AgGateway members receive a free search/view only subscription to AGIIS. Complete access to AGIIS requires a subscription. Dues are based on a combination of corporate revenue and subset size. More information: “AGIIS” button under “eConnectivity” at or contact Members Services at AgGateway.org. 33

eBusiness Resources There is no fee to access or use the AgGateway Open Standards. This is for the shared good of the industry. In addition, these standards can be used internationally. AgGateway members can access all of the completed work created by AgGateway – the standards, guidelines and formats from the volunteer councils. 34

For more information… houses a great deal of news and information on AgGateway activities, including a monthly newsletter. Member Services is a centralized resource for AgGateway members and non-members, to respond to your needs, questions and requests. or

Thank you! 36