Context

The QuantiFarm project focusses on supporting the further deployment of digital agriculture technologies solutions (DATSs) as key enablers for enhancing the sustainability (economic, environmental, social) performance and competitiveness of the agricultural sector. It will achieve this by establishing a framework for assessing the impact and effectiveness of DATSs
in agriculture and developing innovative tools, services and recommendations for farmers, advisors and policy makers.

Following a multi-actor approach, QuantiFarm builds the project activities around 30 Test Cases (TCs) which span over 20 countries in 10 (of the 11) Biogeographical regions across Europe, capturing multiple geo-political and financial settings. All 30 TCs take place in commercial farms of different types, sizes, ownership and operating conditions from 7 agricultural sectors. Different aspects of these TCs will be examined in the context of different work packages (WPs).

The TCs’ actors will be engaged in participatory observation activities to offer valuable input and actively support the behavioral analysis (WP1), the establishment of the Assessment Framework (WP2) and the co-design of an innovative Toolkit for farmers, advisors and policy makers(WP3). The lean multi-actor approach used in the testing activities to evaluate the QuantiFarm Toolkit and validate the Assessment Framework by testing the various DATs in real life conditions, across 3 iterations/growing seasons (WP4). The outcomes will be transformed into policy recommendations (WP5) and will feed the QuantiFarm DIA that will help build the capacities of farmers’ advisors in DATs. Finally, a WP on dissemination, ecosystem building and exploitation (WP6), will guarantee the wider dissemination and knowledge transfer in a multi-actor context of the outputs of the project. QuantiFarm includes 32 partners, 12 of them representing farmers and advisors.

Objectives

1. Establish a network of AKIS actors and commercial farms and use them as Test Cases to assess DATS under real conditions
2. Engage the actors in participatory research activities to conduct a thorough analysis of farmers’ motivations in terms of the uptake of DATSs
3. Design a Framework for assessing the costs, benefits and sustainability impacts of DATSs
4. Provide a qualitative and quantitative assessment of each DATSs tested in the TCs, using the Assessment Framework
5. Create a Digital Toolkit for Farmers, Advisors and Policy Makers, to provide access to the assessment results and support decision-making
6. Provide capacity building for advisors and design innovative advisory services for farmers, to support DATS selection and use and to enhance agriculture’s sustainability performance and competitiveness.
7. Support Policy Makers by delivering policy recommendations and a Policy Monitoring Tool, towards the design of efficient policy measures for the uptake of DATSs.

Activities

Bridging the gap between farmers and DATSs

QuantiFarm focusses on supporting the further deployment of DATS as key enablers for enhancing the sustainability performance and competitiveness of the agricultural sector. To achieve this goal, QuantiFarm aims to establish an Assessment Framework measuring the impact and effectiveness of DATS in agriculture through innovative tools, services and recommendations for farmers, advisors and policy makers: