The Council of the EU has given its final green light to the proposed new Farm Sustainability Data Network (FSDN).
The aim of the newly adopted regulation, according to the council, is to improve the sustainability of the EU’s food systems through an enhanced data collection process.
The new data collection process under the FSDN will take into account environmental and social data, along with the economic data already collected via the current Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN).
The FADN will be replaced by the new FSDN. Data collected under the new system will allow for the collection of additional date necessary to meet the objectives of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the European Green Deal, particularly the Farm to Fork and Biodiversity Strategies, the council said.
The current FADN is a database of microeconomic and accountancy data collected every year, based on a common methodology, from a sample of more than 80,000 EU farms, designed to be statistically representative.
The revised regulation will provide for the collection of environmental and social data, in addition to the data already collected under the FADN regulation.
According to the Council of the EU, the new FSDN will provide advantages over the FADN, including:
- Links to other data collection initiatives will be improved, reducing administrative burden;
- The data collected will be used for research and policy-making, with the goal of monitoring and improving sustainability efforts;
- Advisory services for farmers will be improved and better tailored.
The council said that participation in the data collection process will be voluntary, but member states will be encouraged to develop incentives for farmers to share their data, which will be secure and protected.
The European Green Deal and its Farm to Fork and Biodiversity Strategies have introduced a range of environmental and climate targets for agriculture, in order to contribute to achieving the EU’s goal of climate neutrality by 2050.
The new FSDN has been developed in order to measure progress towards reaching these targets, by means of appropriate data and indicators.
The first set of negotiations between the Council and the European Parliament took place on June 7 this year.
The two EU institutions agreed to replace the FADN with the FSDN during a second round of negotiations later in June.