NIVA Publishes a Technical Brief on EO Monitoring

With the prominent role of Earth Observation (EO), and satellite images as part of the Area Monitoring System (AMS), it is time to review and propose a more standardized way of working with this type of data.  There is need for a consolidated understanding of the different systems. Contributing to the implementation of the new Area Monitoring System and to wider use of Earth Observation data is among the main objectives of the NIVA project. In the Technical Brief EO Monitoring NIVA provides an overview and identifies priorities for the future development of EO monitoring. 

NIVA Publishes a Policy Brief on Carbon

The NIVA project provided an opportunity to develop several environmental indicators aimed at measuring the impact of agricultural practices on the environment. They focus on carbon storage in soils, the risk of nitrate leaching and the impact on biodiversity. Among the tools developed in the NIVA project for agri-environmental monitoring, the ones on carbon flux/budget are the most advanced. The objective of this policy brief is to present the carbon storage indicator in connection with carbon farming and result-based scheme perspectives.

Farm Registry data model

In this Technical Brief NIVA describes the research done and showing examples on the Farm Registry. A Farm Registry is a registry of an administrative, public and informative nature that centralizes and unifies agricultural information and allows the (public) administration and the farmers to query all the data about farms and their agricultural parcels and to facilitate administrative procedures. NIVA has investigated the requirements coming from recent European Union Directives and other initiatives and based on these common requirements, the NIVA project has developed a common Farm Registry data model applicable in all EU Member States. This common data model is a good starting point that will enable common outputs, such as common indicators or harmonized data publication. These common outputs may be helpful for farmers, for Paying Agencies or for anyone having interest in agriculture data.

FMIS data has potential for monitoring

NIVA published a new Policy Brief: FMIS data for CAP. In this 4th NIVA Policy Brief it is stated that the potential and interoperability of farm data has been an important topic during the project. The work done and experiences of NIVA were used to create this Policy Brief:

  • To monitor performance we need more data about farming practices, in particular data about operations performed at parcels, fertilizers & plant protection products use.
  • Farm Management Information Systems and precision farming data as possible data sources are not optimally used at the moment.
  • This data is generated  by farmers and a successful data partnership between policy makers and farming community needs to be established.
  • Given the diversity of FMIS operators data exchange standards, crop lists etc. must be agreed on to boost the wider use of data sharing.

Comments, remarks and questions regarding the Policy Brief are welcome: info@niva4cap.eu.

Policy Brief on Agri-environmental monitoring

This policy brief presents the outcomes of a workshop (Paris, 5 February 2020) organised and hosted by NIVA H2020 project on the development of agro-environmental and agro-climatic indicators for monitoring the impacts of future CAP. The workshop’s aim was to explore possibilities for the operationalisation of environmental performance through indicator monitoring with respect to the new CAP. Secondly, it is crucial to make the link between policy makers (European Commission DGs and national authorities) and activities on agri-environmental and agri-climatic indicators and on data re-use for environmental purposes as part of the NIVA project. The workshop included contributions from EC DG-AGRI, EC DG-CLIMA, EC DG JRC, Wageningen Research, INRAE and the European Environment Bureau.

Modernising the CAP to help deliver the European Green Deal

NIVA published a new Policy Brief. In this Policy Brief NIVA shows how:

  • using new data sources, automation and machine learning enables the EU and Member States to reward and monitor better environmental performance in the CAP;
  • technology also helps to reduce administrative burden by making more use of already collected data, from satellites, sensors, machinery and other sources;
  • modernising the IACS by absorbing new technologies, improves the robustness and granularity of the monitoring of the CAP’s environmental performance. This will open the door to move to a truly performance-based policy.     

The Policy Brief will be presented in the NIVA webinar on 10 December 2020

Common crop type lists for cap monitoring

Monitoring on Common Agricultural Policy concerns the activities the farmer is carrying out on his parcel. An important aspect are the cultivated crops and their rotation over the years, as specific crops and specific rotations have a different impact on farm income, environment, climate and biodiversity. In order to efficiently monitor crop cultivation and to allow for sharing and re-use of monitoring data, the consistency in crop type nomenclature becomes vital to provide a multi-annual and geographically consistent perspective. The NIVA project made a Technical Brief dealing with the common crop type lists.