FaST will help lay the foundations of a comprehensive digital ecosystem for sustainable farm and land management in Europe. It will support farmers in their administrative decision-making processes, for farm profitability and environmental sustainability. At the same time, it will provide a reliable on-farm landing spot for digital solution developers (including satellite-based solutions) and service providers. It will reduce administrative burdens for farmers and Paying Agencies, and streamline communication between the farmers and public authorities.
Farmers will download and upload data from/to the FaST platform and be proposed value-added agri services that will be displayed right into the FaST app and web portal.
The FaST platform will be interfaced with the national databases: the farmer's data will be readily available without needed to reinput them.
Farmers will have the opportunity to both increase their revenues (increasing their crop yield thanks to correct rate of application for fertilizers, for instance) and reduce their costs (decreasing the use of inputs: fertilizers, plant protection products or fuel)
As the indications provided by FaST are in line with the regulation, farmers using FaST can improve their compliance.
Improving nutrient management, for instance, will reduce the risk of nitrogen leaching, while preserving soil quality and productivity.
Utilizing a digital tool such as FaST will allow the farmer to simplify tasks and avoid duplicating data entry for different administrative and farm-management purposes.
Communicating with Paying Agencies or other farmers (for problem warning for example) will be easier and faster for farmers.
Thanks to its modularity, the platform will provide other features, including environmental services or solutions from the private sector (usually not accessible to small farmers for cost or/and complexity reasons).
As a data recorder, FaST will detect trends on the farmer’s land, and will become a powerful decision-making tool for farmers.
Regardless of their size, all European farms will have access to digital tools and personalized nutrient management plans.
The largest part of the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) budget is managed and controlled through Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) in Member States, aiming to safeguard the CAP financials and supporting the farmers. The IACS is implemented at national and regional level through the Paying Agencies of each EU Member State. In the post-2020 CAP reform, Member States will be responsible, through their Paying Agencies, for providing a Farm Sustainability Tool to their farmers (GAEC5). At the same time, satellite Earth Observation (EO) is seen to take an increasing role in the overall implementation of the CAP, from compliance with legal obligations to the implementation of targeted climate and environment measures. With the FaST, PA will register compliance with GAEC 5 and possibly with further SMRs and GAECs.
As the FaST platform will provide access to libraries of code, the tool will be customized by Paying Agencies, to offer additional functionalities or to adapt to Member States specificities.
Paying agencies will also use the tool to communicate directly with the farmers (on CAP declaration campaign for example).
Support to monitoring certain environmental parameters (soil quality, air pollution, nitrogen rate, water quality, etc). Particular benefit to Nitrogen Vulnerable Zones.
Relevant advice that is within the parameters of the CAP, ensuring that farmers who follow this advice both are compliant with the CAP and have a record proving this fact.
Rapid sharing of critical information for farmers, such as warnings on declarations, changes in policies, etc. Farmers can also rapidly reach MA/PAs to inform them of any issues when the need arises.
Pooling of resources by many member states on FaST leads to significantly higher value than individual member states. Democratic access to these resources levels the playing field across the EU.
Laying the foundations for digitalisation would be a boon to rural development efforts and small holders by introducing them to new technology. Offering users a portfolio of digital services, allowing them to derive value in ways most relevant to their circumstance.
.svg)
The farmers will be able to share their data with their advisors or with their cooperative, so they be provided advice based on the information stored and computed in the FaST.
Information and knowledge made available by FaST will allow advisors to strengthen their services, as well as allow them to directly offer their services to farmers.
Policy makers and regulatory bodies can be interested in retrieving data from the FaST platform to support decisions towards new policies, analysis on the agriculture sector trends, etc.
FaST will illustrate trends and generate information that will offer new insights for public actors, which can help in policy development and decision making.
Data generated by the FaST platform could feed into studies and research.
FaST will be valuable for researchers, increasing technical agriculture knowledgeand supporting nutrient and environment management, or statistical model building.
NGOs or statistical agencies could partner with farmers or governmental agencies to use the FaST platform for improved environmental action.
The platform is modular and enables the addition of other software and additional services that can be interfaced with the FaST and use its data.
Commercial App developers can leverage on the FaST platform to develop their own products and offer complementing services to the farmer, on an opt-in basis.
The modular FaST will allow private actors to offer their services on the platform, directly to the farmers, granting them access to harder to reach market segments like small farmers.
