Agricultural holdings: conversion of the Farm Accountancy Data Network into a Farm Sustainability Data Network
The Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development adopted the report by Jérémy DECERLE (Renew Europe, FR) on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Regulation (EC) No 1217/2009 as regards conversion of the Farm Accountancy Data Network into a Farm Sustainability Data Network.
The committee responsible recommended that the European Parliament's position adopted at first reading under the ordinary legislative procedure should amend the proposal as follows:
Creation of a Community farm accounting data network
The purpose of the data network should be to contribute to the evaluation of whether the objectives of the common agricultural policy are being met and to evaluate the impact of future policies on the agricultural sector.
Members proposed adding an extra dimension to the proposed Regulation. They suggested that an environmental and social strand should be added to the Union farm sustainability data network (‘FSDN’ or ‘data network’). A new Annex - I sets out the economic, environmental and social data categories to be collected. Thes three categories should be the unvarying backbone of the FSDN.
In addition, such data may also be used to provide incentives such as personalised advisory services and feedback to farmers with the aim of facilitating the management of agricultural holdings and of improving the sustainability of agricultural holdings.
Voluntary participation
Considering that most Member States do not face problems with farmers’ participation in the existing FADN and taking into account the wider scope and the increased quantity of data to be collected in the FSDN, the voluntary nature of participation of the farmers in the FSDN should be maintained. When selected as returning holding, farmers should do their best to provide the data. It should be possible for the Member States to adopt national rules to ensure that the data collected is of better quality and to facilitate the collection of the data.
An agricultural holding qualifying as returning holding in the plan for the selection of returning holdings may voluntarily facilitate the collection of the requested data in accordance with national law. To qualify as a returning holding, an agricultural holding should be farmed by a farmer keeping farm accounts or willing and able to keep farm accounts and willing to allow the accountancy data from the agricultural holding to be made available to the Commission.
Liaison agencies
Each Member State should appoint a liaison agency whose duties should be to:
- make available, within two years after the collection of the data, the obtained results for providing updated advice, updated benchmarking and feedback to returning holdings on their sustainability performance and farm management;
- set out a plan for the distribution of incentives granted to farmers under this Regulation.
Delegated acts
The Commission should be empowered to adopt delegated acts on rules fixing thresholds. Those rules should ensure that farms of smaller economic size are inclusively represented. It should also be empowered to adopt delegated acts concerning rules to determine the data to be collected based on the topics listed in Annex - I, and the general rules for data collection. The general rules for data collection should take into account relevant technology advancements and the possibility of collecting data through remote sensing.