Among the topics of the international conference agenda – EU projects currently being implemented by the NPA
The 23 Conference of the paying agencies of the Baltic States and Poland took place in Tartu, Estonia, on 4-6 September 2024. Representatives from the Lithuanian National Paying Agency (NPA), from the Estonian Agricultural Registers and Information Board (ARIB), from the Latvian Rural Support Service (RSS) and from the Polish Agency of Restructuring and Modernization of Agriculture (ARMA) participated in the conference. Experience of support administration, challenges of new CAP programming period were presented and future plans were shared during this annual event.
Workshops on automation of performance reporting processes, implementation of area monitoring system and difficulties of the first year, on quality assessment controls, learning points and changes in the processes based on 2023 experiences, on simplifying the implementation of investment measures, on data automation questions and reporting took place during the event.
Representatives of ARIB, Estonia, introduced the institution's future goals and scientific services, colleagues from ARMA, Poland, presented their optimisation process of handling investment applications in agriculture, the representatives from the Latvian RSS familiarized the audience with the results of the first year of CAP reform for IACS payments in Latvia.
The representative of the NPA in his presentation“Area Monitoring System (AMS) current and future impact” highlighted the subject of thedigital technologies, and presented tothe audience respective Horizon Europe and LIFE programme projects, currently being implemented by the NPA as the member of respective EU MS consortiums: Horizon Europe AgriDataValue project (HE ADV), Horizon Europe BirdWatch project, GFarm project under the EU LIFE programme.
HE ADV aims at development of an innovative, open source, multi-technological, using AI-based cloud, Agri-Environment Data Space (ADS) platform. The platform will ensure smart farming digital transformation and it will be used by farmers, consultants, governmental institutions, academia. The advantages of the platform comprise smooth farm management following CAP requirements on agri-environmental issues, monitoring of crops, animals and land use, making decisions with the account of climate change effect and its mitigation, automated data collection and processing, data security, privacy, traceability, and sharing.
Horizon Europe BirdWatch project is a Copernicus-based service for the improvement of habitat suitability of farmland birds via satellite-enabled monitoring, evaluation and optimisation of CAP greening measures. The aim of the project is to create a service (e-portal) on the basis of Sentinel data, which is intended to improve bird habitats in cultivated lands, using satellite communication-based monitoring, evaluation and optimization of CAP environmental protection measures. BirdWatch aims to contribute to the increase in biodiversity and the improvement of farmland ecosystem health in Europe and thus promote sustainable farming practises which eventually contribute to the resilience of our society.
GFarm for LIFE project aims to develop a systematic ecosystem model for the more accurate and reliable assessment and registration of GHG emissions in the AFOLU (agriculture, forestry and other land use) sector, and to design a framework for a national carbon absorption certification and monitoring. GFarm for LIFE will refine the current state-of-the-art technology for monitoring GHS emissions on whole farm and forestry land by using data sources (including data from direct farming activities data; declared farm machinery telematic data; data from public sector institutions; earth observation (EO) and soil sampling data; and additional data), and will be based on an holistic framework that will enable and support the transition towards carbon farming practices. The project aims to play a key role in the systemic change required for the transition to carbon farming in the Lithuanian and European AFOLU system that benefits producers, consumers, the climate and the environment.
The Conferences of the Baltic States’ and Polish paying agencies, that traditionally take place every year in a different country,are an excellent place to discuss the most relevant questions and problems as well as to share good practices among colleagues. Next year the event will be held in Lithuania.
Last updated: 26-09-2024
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