Open AgTech today announced the first version of the AgTech API (ATA) Specification, a standard, programming language-agnostic interface description for REST APIs. The ATA Specification is the first standard to facilitate data transfer and collaboration efforts in the greenhouse and vertical farming industries.

A growing number of technologies common in vertical and greenhouse farming can now complement each other. This provides growers with greater abilities to control indoor growing operations and gain business insights concerning their farming practices.

To date, growers face significant challenges when trying to connect control systems, sensors, machinery, lighting, and software tools made by different companies. This disadvantages growers from gaining new means to manage and automate their operations. The ATA Specification serves to standardize the way technology companies build their APIs, making it possible to exchange data and operational control among different systems used in greenhouses and vertical farms. Growers can now purchase systems from many different manufacturers and have their data flow back and forth, so long as the systems follow the ATA protocol.

Open AgTech is a collaborative community of technology professionals dedicated to improving technology in agriculture. “The AgTech API Specification is the first step toward broad implementation of connected systems for greenhouses and vertical farms,” said the Open AgTech Technical Steering Committee. “Allowing hardware and software from many different companies to communicate and interact benefits the grower directly and is a leap forward for our industry.”

Any organization can adopt the ATA Specification for their products and contribute to further development of the standard. Open AgTech calls on all companies with a product offering in the greenhouse or vertical farming industry to implement and test the standard. Open AgTech holds monthly working sessions that are open to the community and encourages participation from individuals and companies alike. To participate and view Version 1.0 of the ATA Specification, you can go to: https://github.com/open-ag-tech/api-spec.

Many industry leading companies have endorsed and commit to complying with the ATA Specification, including Agrilyst, Argus Controls, Autogrow, Illumitex, Link4, Lumigrow, Motorleaf, and Osram.    

About Open AgTech 
Open AgTech is a collaborative community of technology professionals dedicated to improving technology in agriculture.

About the AgTech API Specification 
The AgTech API Specification is a community-driven open specification within Open AgTech. ATA defines a standard, programming language-agnostic interface description for REST APIs, which allows both humans and computers to discover and understand the capabilities of a service without requiring access to source code or inspection of network traffic.