The Use Case 5A focus on helping Paying Agencies with updating LPIS (Land Parcel Identification System). ​The aim of the UC5A has been to show, that LPIS-update do not have to be done manually by LPIS-operators. The use case has focused on developing seven different algorithms for different elements to help identify possible changes for the update of LPIS. The Use Case has good results on buildings, high vegetation, trees in rows, group of trees, ponds incl. brim-vegetation. The benefits of the UC5A are: objective results​, results that can be reproduced and repeated​, less omission in change detection​, accurate, up-to-date LPIS system​, Time/cost reduction in the future LPIS update process​, LPIS operators can focus on more interesting tasks​, LPIS operators will have more certainty on updating correctly. UC5A is available for PA’s to investigate.

This platform includes an API layer and UI layer and facilitates machine learning and deep learning with the ability to upload images and select and run AI models through the UI layer or through communication with the API. Currently the models include algorithms to support privacy protection (detect and obscure faces, number plates), image quality, identification of grazing activity, identification of permanent pasture and detection of fruit (apples). The UI allows users to upload images, select the appropriate AI model to run and collect the results once completed. through the API layer the same models and results can be achieved. This is being used in AgriSnap (PA09)

With the introduction of Checks by Monitoring and the future Area Monitoring System Paying Agencies (PA) may require farmers to provide additional data to verify their scheme claims. The farmer may have to submit a Geotag Photo at the request of the PA. The photo should be submitted with all of the required information including the geolocation of where it was taken. AgriSnap is a secure mobile application that will allow farmers receive photo requests and understand where they need to take the photo. When the farmer is in the correct location they can take the photo and submit to the PA. The photo and the information behind it will allow the PA make a quick decision on the eligibility of the claim.

Society and consumers feel more and more concerned by environmental issues and in particular by the role played by agriculture and supply chain.

For legal, commercial, marketing, or ethical reasons companies may be willing to improve their environmental balance. They can expect a better image, attract more consumers, increase added value for their products and thus offer a better income to the farmers.

As a result, farmers are also directly concerned by the improvment of their practices either for environmental or economical reasons.

Agri-environmental Indicators, such as the ones developped in the NIVA project aim to assess the impact of agricultural practices on environment and climate

Indicator carbon tier 1 and 2 can provide the farmers a first idea of the carbon flux and carbon budget at parcel or even pixel (10x10) level. Carbon tier 3 can even calculate precisely the carbon budget on the basis of a comprhensive agro-pedo-climatic modelisation

Indicator nitrate tier 1 offers the farmers to estimate the risk of lixiviation at parcel or pixel level

For a group of farmers and their advisors involved in a common procedure, those indicators allow to compare each other and assess the potential environmental and economical benefit that can be expected in the different holdings

The objectives of the green deal have the consequence of asking the Member States to better take into account environmental issues in their policies and in particular the CAP

It is well documented that agricultural activities have a prominent impact on environment and climate and Policy makers in this domain are strongly asked to improve the environmental conditions of rural areas by promoting relevant agricultural practices.

In the decision phase, policy maker can use the agro-environmental indicators about carbon, nitrate and biodiversity to get better understanding of the situation, e.g. to identify the areas where improvement is required. Data-driven measures can then be decided.

In the monitoring phase, the indicators are computed to provide initial state-of-play (T0) and then at regular intervals (e.g. every year) to measure the improvements and to assess the policy efficiency.

This practice is described in a generic way. A concrete example is the use of agro-environmental indicators by the French Ministry of Environment regarding payments to farmers for ecosystem services.

Due to the implementation of Controls by Monitoring as well as the forthcoming Area Measurement System there is an emerging need of a sophisticated system to support decisions regarding traffic light status regarding Basic Payment Scheme, Crop Specific payment for Cotton and certain Voluntary Coupled Schemes. The core idea is to develop a decision support system which integrates EO -driven results originating from a classification engine and secondary data (geotagged images) as extra proof of eligibility. NIVA DSS offers the possibility to produce traffic light codes in a parcel level resulting from EO processing by building any desired eligibility Criterion and enables the automating incorporation of secondary data in order to reduce the inconclusive cases. Bearing in mind the administrative burden on behalf of the PA and the effort required by farmers, the interoperability of NIVA DSS and AgriSnap application was accomplished so as the automatically send and receive data (alerts and field photos) in a seamless manner. NIVA DSS helps beneficiaries amend potential non-compliant parcels and provides for a PA inspector a simplified overview of the consecutive decision rounds throughout a claim year.

Since each Member State has highly customized Geospatial aid applications, different external registers and aid schemes therefore EU wide harmonized rules should not be expected, however Robot framework will produce methods and algorithms which could benefit any country. Experience gathered for harvesting tools is expected to benefit partners with low/unknown system integration level where robots should be used to harvest external data. Supporting application data harvesting methods including robotized tools and workflows designed should be usable in later stages of application submission and administration process. High Integration and interoperability enable automated data accessibility and harvesting from one system to another. But when integration is limited or not possible, they have to be done manually. However, manual activities are expensive, time-consuming, redundant, and error-prone. A solution is the robotic process automation that automates and simulates manual activity.

Each year during claim submission period farmer has to check and update his parcel boundaries or delineate new field and choose crop type. The preliminary parcel boundary automatic delineation component based on Sentinel-2 imagery is mostly aimed to benefit the farmers by creating of methodology and algorithm with preliminary information about parcels boundaries thus reducing time spent filling applications and limiting number of farmer errors by boundary delineation suggestion. The delineated boundaries can aid the farmers to speed up the declaration process and for Paying Agencies this tool will help to reduce administrative burden and reduce overall error rate and less sanctions for farmers. Additionally, farmers could be provided with additional data like crop type for the aid submission which will also reduce time spent filling applications and limiting number of farmer errors. Paying agency as stakeholder could get less errors in the farmers’ applications too. At this point any algorithm results can be integrated into prefilled application process for example Sen4CAP project results. During project it will be checked if any results from 2020 CY Sen4CAP crop/land cover type, activity monitoring could be available during declaration period as preliminary crop type data, at what concrete time and of how much quantity (crop types/ parcels/area/farmers).

A farmer within the framework of the future CAP wants to apply for the aid and a seamless claim system has been established. The solution is to propose a web service for updating the information, which allows keeping the data of your farm in the proposed registry, so that the Administration can automatically generate the help requests of the producers based on that standardized alphanumeric and graphic information, contained in the registry. This system is able to guarantee all requests are generated on information set defined as standard and minimum.

The Commission wants to carry out queries to obtain statistical information on agricultural holdings in different Member States. The solution is: A web service that allows obtaining the desired information in a standardized way among Member States, if the proposed data model is adopted to confirm a registry of farms in all participating countries. The Commission could obtain information from different countries in a standard format, through the same medium.

The Administration needs to know the amounts and type of fertilizers used in a certain area, to determine if directives are accomplished, to obtain indicators and to be able to certify if an area is eligible to receive community aid. The solution is: Proposing a web service for consulting standardized information in a register of farms, which allows obtaining the necessary data for further processing and obtaining the specific indicators. Using the standardized information from the registry, the Administration has the guarantee that the information obtained is standardized (although in origin each producer uses a different app to record it) and it can be used from a single point.

Today the farmers, after the presentation of the submission, have no certainty of how much will they be given in terms of economic supplies and if their submission will be followed by sanctions, knowing that there are going to be objective checks from the Paying Agencies. Moreover in the current system are expected to be increases in spending and in time, both for the farmers and for the production chain that deals with the erogation of the requested aids. The new system Starting from the company file updated by the farmer and the company consistency of owned fields, automatically calculates with no mistakes the community's contributes that can be delivered. An easy interface is given, trough which each company or farmer can verify what is available and request immediately the payment, without having to deal with sanctions and saving time and others costs. The system, in a totally transparent manner, acquires data from certified sources, and through rules established a priori, it allows to know the status of eligibility, and consequently guide the farmer in requesting contributions, relieving him of any material error.

Increasing number of farmers are using a type of software called Farm Management Information System (FMIS) for keeping track of their farming activities. Amongst other information FMIS contains track record of all operations performed in agricultural parcel and other relevant data related to agricultural parcels and in some EU countries (e.g. Estonia) keeping of such record is mandatory. Some of this information is currently used in applying CAP payments and has also potentially wider value, especially in the context of CAP post2020. To decrease the administrative burden in CAP payments and open up new possibilities for using farming data, it is desirable to enable automatic, system to system exchange of data between FMIS and IACS, information system used by Paying Agency. Idea of farmer sharing FMIS data with Paying Agency (on a voluntary basis) needs to be supported by interoperability between information systems, it must be technically possible to interact and systems to must be able to exchange data with unambiguous, shared meaning. Prototype solutions of such data exchange developed in NIVA are a step towards wider use of agricultural data with less administrative burden. Voluntarily shared farming data can be used for applying CAP payments, in CAP payments control process and for providing advisory services or compliance support. In the other hand, some information stored in IACS can be (re-)used in FMIS and farmer must be able to retrieve it from IACS with minimum effort. It is envisioned that exchange of data is always initiated by farmer, voluntary and fully automated.

A farmer wants to spare biodiversity a small ditch: no fertilising and spraying. The ditch is so small that it is not included in the official IACS plot contours. To avoid overlap in fertilization, he has purchased a precision spreader. If this spreader carries out a standard task map, the ditch is also treated. How does he save the ditch?

The solution is: start in the same way as he did without precision technology: drive the edge spreader along the plot edges, and in the same way along the small ditch. In this way he makes 3 parcels: on the left side of the ditch, on the right side of the ditch and (full with) at the end of the ditch. He records these plots in his board computer, and will on those plots he will base his fertilisation in the future. Within these parcels, the precision spreader ensures that there is no overlap.

In this way, the farmer (as in the past) has to drive a few extra tracks, but he takes care of the 'micro-diversity'.