Together with the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) and the Finnish data intermediary service DataSpace Europe, the Finnish Food Authority has launched a pilot project in which data collected by a farmer or contractor on agricultural measures is transferred to serve as a basis for processing farmer subsidies.
The pilot project is part of the European CEADS project aiming to build a common European agricultural data space. It tests common European practices on how agricultural data can be transferred.
A common data infrastructure that supports the movement of data, meaning a basic structure that allows for the collection, storage, processing, sharing and utilisation of data, is seen as a way to strengthen the negotiating position of farms and facilitate new services.
Data to improve competitiveness and reduce paperwork
Smooth data transfers will be a key part of the competitiveness of plant cultivation in the future. The export difficulties of Finnish oats that have emerged in recent weeks are an example of how a dysfunctional data market reduces the competitiveness of Finnish production both domestically and globally.
Recent estimates by Luke emphasise that the competitiveness of farmers will weaken if production data is not effectively utilised for risk management, cost accounting and contract negotiations.
The aim of the pilot project now being launched is also to reduce the administrative paperwork related to subsidies that the farmer has to complete and to improve the quality of the data on which the subsidy payments are based.
"The data collected from machines or measures helps farmers analyse the productivity of their inputs. The farmer may also submit some of the information to the administration. This produces reliable and up-to-date data and reduces the farmer's need to notify the administration of individual measures separately," says Chief Specialist Juha Kippo from the Finnish Food Authority.
Fair rules and common standards are needed
The CEADS project connects Finland to the evolving European agricultural data space, in which data is transferred between various services and operators with the farmer's permission according to common standards and fair rules.
The pilot also utilises Finnish innovations, such as the Tritom® service for data transfers and the NoLimits Remote Control mobile application, which allows farmers to send data from any machine to the Finnish Food Authority's systems via Tritom.
"The competencies and experiences gained from the pilot on the safe, licensed and transparent sharing and utilisation of data can be further applied more broadly in the sector," says Senior Scientist Liisa Pesonen from the Natural Resources Institute Finland.
Finland participates in the preparation of European rules
The common European data structure and the agriculture and food industry ecosystem formed around it is intended, among other things, to support climate objectives and the resource efficiency of farms and facilitate new services.
Member states now have the opportunity to influence what kind of rules are established for the transfer and use of data. The pilot project provides Finland with concrete experiences and a negotiating position on what kind of solutions are ultimately approved in the EU. The pilots will continue in several countries this year and their results will be utilised at both national and EU level.
More information on CEADS project: https://ceads.eu/