The 24th Conference of Paying Agencies of the Baltic States and Poland took place in Lithuania

From 24 to 26 September the National Paying Agency (NPA) of Lithuania invited the Paying Agencies of the Baltic States and Poland to the Conference “Innovation and Technology – the Key Enabler of the Agricultural and Rural Development Strategic Plan 2023–2027” to discuss the current issues in the agricultural sector, new developments, and sharing experiences in support administration.

At the opening of the Conference, NPA Director Fortunatas Dirginčius welcomed the gathered colleagues and emphasized the fact that today in the agricultural sector many tasks are already being taken over by robots and automated systems in  implementing the 2023–2027 Strategic Plan for Agriculture and Rural Development (the Strategic Plan) of Lithuania and said: “Modern fertilization methods, automated processes, innovations that allow farm activity monitoring and analysis – these are no longer the future. Farmers are already using such tools today.”

It was this particular agricultural progress, best farming practices, and the use of artificial intelligence in NPAs’ activities that were the main topics discussed by the participants of this year’s Conference.

We invite you to get familiar with  the presentations:

• NPA Director Fortunatas Dirginčius delivered a statement on digital solutions for agriculture in the implementation of the Strategic Plan – presentation.

• NPA Control Department Director Liutauras Šimkus made a presentation on “Impact in Figures: The Role of “ALNSIS 1.0” in Administering and Monitoring the Measures of Lithuania’s Agricultural and Rural Development Strategic Plan for 2023–2027” – presentation.
• NPA Control Department Head of the Direct Support Control Division Aušrius Kučinskas introduced ALNSIS 2.0 – new opportunities for the Administering and Monitoring the Strategic Plan Measures – presentation.
• Ms. Zane Atstaja, representative of the Rural Support Service of Latvia, made a presentation on the ESA project “Development of the Common Earth Observation Data Baltic Platform for National Government Organizations (EO-BALP)” – presentation.
• NPA Deputy Director Tomas Orlickas  delivered a statement on international projects, the interaction of the Strategic Plan measure administration, and practical insights – presentation.
• A presentation on artificial intelligence used in NPA activities was delivered by AI itself – you can watch it here!
• Mrs. Bernadett Csonka, representative of EOX, introduced the projects on automated image classification (GEO FUSION) and sustainable resource management – carbon footprint accounting (GTIF) – presentation.
• Mr. Nils Helset, representative of Digifarm, made a presentation on benefits of 1m resolution Sentinel-2 imagery and field boundaries for Paying Agencies– presentation.
• Mr. Rimtautas Petraitis, representative of the Lithuanian Agricultural Advisory Service, made a presentation on the contribution of international projects to the creation and implementation of innovations in agriculture – presentation.
• Mr. Rokas Jurkėnas, the founder of Idea Link, delivered a presentation on the use of artificial intelligenceand its practical application in business– presentation.

In addition, the representatives of Estonian and Polish Paying Agencies led the discussions on digital and IT solutions used in NPAs’ activities and their importance in administering support measures.

A cooperation agreement was also signed with the Polish Paying Agency and a particularly relevant topic was discussed – the conclusion of the 2014–2020 programming period during the Conference. The conference participants shared the challenges arising from it and searched for ways to address them.

Active and meaningful discussions with the colleagues from NPAs of Latvia, Estonia and Poland proved to be especially useful in seeking common solutions to improve support administration processes and to ensure smooth, high-quality activities and processes of NPAs.

We express our kindthanks to  the participants of the Conference for their active discussions and shared experiences. We hope to see you again at the next conference!

Last updated: 29-09-2025

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