From Friday 25 until Saturday 26 October, UC4b took part at the WUR Lifesciences Hackathon, with the the NIVA challenge: the use of machine data by government. A team was build up consisting of representatives of the Dutch Paying Agency (PA) on the one hand, and a mix of API experts, scientists, software developers and a student on the other. The team managed to construct useful pieces of an actual data pipeline. The team identified key issues for the PA to deal with when importing machine data and develop a processing chain to use machine data for identifying plot boundaries (to replace the manual process of drawing plot boundaries). The team identified a technical and a governance track, both will be further elaborated in the work of UC4b.

Uploading machine data from the catch crop sowing process gives the PA much more certainty than the simple tick box on the form. If this can be possible in an automated process it can reduce the administrative burden for the farmer. UC4b is looking into a seamless application: collecting farm data by crop monitoring from satellite images, and asking farmers to approve the crops and measures which are identified. Farmers can confirm their parcels, or add additional information: machine data or geotagged photo’s to support their application. It will be more look like an audit process. More data support would be great, e.g. cadastral parcel data. This helps farmers locating their crop parcels. Or supply more advice data to farmers, for example to help them to fulfill their obligations that come from the nitrogen directive.