This resource provides policy guidance for all countries on investing in national agricultural data infrastructure.
Collaboratively produced with the support of Commonwealth member countries and experts, and validated in 2025 through a webinar with over 60 experts globally, it provides a comprehensive overview of a sectoral approach to digital public infrastructure (DPI) aimed at establishing a co-ordinated and collaborative framework for agricultural data management across Commonwealth countries and beyond.
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Boosting trade across the Commonwealth – including the ambitious target of growing intra-Commonwealth trade to US$2 trillion by 2030 – and expanding investment remains an enormous hurdle for the 56 member countries.
Data has become the engine of economic growth for many economies today, and it is the fuel that propels digitalisation. However, the huge potential gains that digitalisation offers to intra-regional trade cannot be realised in the absence of a co-ordinated foundational layer for data in these countries.
In response to this challenge, the Commonwealth Secretariat – through the Commonwealth Connectivity Agenda for Trade and Investment, and in collaboration with other technical partners – developed the National Agricultural Data Infrastructure (NAgDI) model. As set out in this policy guide, it provides a comprehensive overview of a sectoral approach to digital public infrastructure (DPI), aimed at establishing a co-ordinated and collaborative framework for agricultural data management across Commonwealth countries and beyond.
It is anchored on a holistic approach to infrastructure for agricultural data at country level, with infrastructure framed as a set of facilities and systems to include both technical (hard) and institutional (soft) components. As well as agriculture, the NAgDI model also encompasses fisheries, livestock and forestry, and user data and content data. This unique resource – agricultural data – requires national infrastructure that encompasses public and private sector partners being harnessed by countries.
Taking this holistic approach, the NAgDI initiative aims to support member countries to design and build standardised and interoperable national infrastructure for data exchange that creates a superhighway of quality data for intra-Commonwealth trade and investment facilitation. Ultimately, it seeks to assist countries to harness the potentials of the data economy by fostering collaboration, leveraging existing digital public goods and enhancing their data management capabilities to support innovation and improve decision-making and sustainable agricultural practices.
