Learning from Research

A farm registry tool for exchanging information and data among databases

The tool is a data model for exchanging information between IACS and various other information systems.

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Output Description

NIVA considers the farm registry as an administrative, public, and informative tool that can centralise and unify agricultural information. It allows the Administration and the farmers to query all the data about farms and their agricultural parcels and facilitate administrative procedures. As such, the farm registry should be linked to the future IACS and should be updated continuously. 

This product attempts to build a data model to exchange information among the existing datasets related to IACS and other systems and complete a farm registry. 

The goals of the farm registry model are short and long term: 

In the short term, the tool will: 

  • Analyse the existing datasets related to IACS. 
  • Develop an architecture integrated with other systems (e.g., FaST, official agricultural registers, official statistical surveys, and intelligent farming applications). 
  • A multi-actor approach. 
  • Propose farm registry data model for agricultural areas. 

In the long term, the tool will: 

  • Prepare for the new CAP by making extensive use of information, accessing different datasets, making the control of the claims easier, and supporting a future seamless claims system. 

When finished in mid-2022, the farm registry will connect databases, contain information on personal data of farm owners, data on the farm and the agricultural plots that make up the farm. The latter will include the geospatial delimitation of the farm, rainfed or irrigated crop, seedtime, use of fertilisers and phytosanitary products, especially the product, dose and application date. A critical component of this tool is the unification of the different classifications of crop types across the Member States and the different EU and international databases.

Relevance for monitoring and evaluation of the CAP

Interoperability of databases: This product focuses on the interoperability between IACS and other official agricultural databases. It supports evaluation indirectly since, when operational, it will unify a significant amount of multilevel (farmer, farm, plot) data and information and will unpack evaluators' opportunities concerning data. 

Potential to evaluate PMEF indicators: Special reference should be made to the potential access to farm practices including fertiliser and pesticide use that will allow a better evaluation at the micro and farm-level of new indicators (e.g., PMEF I.26 on limiting antibiotic use or I.27 on sustainable use of pesticides) and of other Farm-to-Fork and biodiversity targets. 

The model is currently being tested in Estonia, the Netherlands, and Andalucía (Spain). The farm registry service and database source code are available in NIVA’s Gitlab repository, presently accessible only to NIVA partners. In Andalusia, CAPDER, the Andalusia CAP Payment Agency tests further developments and improvement plans of a prototype that includes the following functionalities: (1) a complete database on farms, plots, crops, fertilisers, and phytosanitary products and (2) several interfaces providing interoperability functionalities 

Relevance of the output per CAP Objectives

  • Specific Objective 4 – Climate change action
  • Specific Objective 5 – Environmental care
  • Specific Objective 6 – Preserve landscape and biodiversity
  • Specific Objective 9 – Protect food and health quality

Additional output information

Data collection systems used:

  • IACS/LPIS 
  • FADN(FSDN)
  • Copernicus
  • LUCAS Soil or relevant soil interventions
  • Natura 2000 Database
  • Eurostat
  • FMIS – Farm Management Information Systems

Type of output:

  • New / improved data for M&E
  • Database/ data registry
  • Database interoperability

Associated evaluation approaches:

  • Desk research
  • Data analysis
  • Impact evaluation ex post
  • Impact evaluation ongoing

Spatial scale:

  • Parcel
  • Farm holding

Project information

Niva Logo

New IACS Vision in Action 

The overall objective of NIVA is to modernise the Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) by making efficient use of digital solutions and e-tools and creating reliable methodologies and harmonised data sets for monitoring agricultural performance. IACS’s modernisation will reduce the administrative burden for farmers, Paying Agencies and other stakeholders. 

NIVA’s specific objectives are to: 

  • Integrate and reuse IACS evolutions based on open standards and shared services. 
  • Build on farmers’ acceptance of the Smart Monitoring methodology. 
  • Reduce the gap between current use and potential broader use of IACS data. 
  • Create a permanent exchange platform for discussion and exchange. 

Project’s timeframe: 2019 – 2022

Contacts of project holder: Dr Sander Janssen, Wageningen University (sander.janssen@wur.nl) 

Website: NIVA: https://www.niva4cap.eu/project 

CORDIS database: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/842009 

Territorial coverage: Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Slovenia, Spain, The Netherlands

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