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Factsheet - Farm data for better farm performance

All the information from the workshop ‘Farm data for better farm performance’ at a glance.

Digital technologies and data-based solutions can help farmers work more precisely, efficiently and sustainably. They can improve farming practices and decision making, and help increase the environmental performance of farms, whilst also making farming jobs more attractive to younger generations. Collaborative data sharing models play a key role in ensuring that data-driven strategies add value to the agri-food chain. On the other hand, data sharing also raises challenges for farmers, such as privacy concerns, data protection and ownership.

The aims of the workshop were:

  • Take stock of ongoing successful projects and initiatives that collect and make use of farm-generated data to improve farm performance.
  • Explore the role of different stakeholders in on-farm data collection, and explore the use of on-farm data for agricultural production.
  • Provide an environment to exchange best practices on collecting, using and sharing farm data.

There are some important challenges ahead of us. First, farmers need further support on how to evaluate the benefits of using farm data, and specifically medium to longer-term benefits. It is not always very clear for farmers what these potential longer-term benefits are and when they can be expected. Second, farmers need more fairness. Farmers argue that despite investments in digital technologies, the return on these investments is sometimes made outside the farm. Furthermore, many farmers feel that they are contributing data, but that no or not enough value is coming back. Real improvement will only be possible if there is trust between the actors who share and work with the available data. To overcome these challenges and better evaluate the benefits, to assess the fairness and trust the digital exchange of data, there is an overall need for more digital skills and for better capacities to make investments in digital technologies.

All the information from the workshop ‘Farm data for better farm performance’ at a glance.

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Resources

English language

EU CAP Network Factsheet - Farm Data for Better Farm Performance

(PDF – 2.72 MB)