News » A new tool to increase the sustainable use of nutrients across the EU

As part of the new common agricultural policy (CAP) proposalsfor 2021-27, a new tool is being developed to help farmers manage theuse of nutrients on their farm. The Farm Sustainability Tool forNutrients (FaST), proposed in the framework of the Good Agricultural andEnvironmental Conditions (GAECs), aims to facilitate a sustainable useof fertilisers for all farmers in the EU while boosting the digitisationof the agricultural sector.

The CAP proposals include high ambitions for environmental andclimate action and the digitisation of the agricultural sector. In linewith those objectives, the FaST aims to contribute to the increase ofcompetiveness, climate change action, and environmental care.

To be used by farmers and free of charge, the FaST tool willautomatically provide information on the parcels selected, includingcrops, the number of animals on the farm and the amount of manuregenerated by them. Additional data will also be available for nutrientmanagement such as data on soil, the proximity of protected areas andlegal limits on the use of nutrients. Accessible via mobile phones, PCsor tablets as a digital tool, the user can accept or edit the dataprovided. From this, the tool will propose a nutrient management plan,which gives customised recommendations on crop fertilisation for thefarm selected.

Its use will bring environmental benefits, such as reducing nutrientleakage in ground water and rivers, as well as positively contributingto soil quality and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The tool willalso make sense from an agronomic perspective. It will help decrease theuse of nutrients, when there is over-fertilisation or increase cropyield, when there is under-fertilisation. In both cases, this will leadto an increase in farmers´ revenues and efficiency.

The simplification of the farmers? tasks is another main advantage ofthe FaST. Data entry and input duplication, for example the manualintroduction of the same data for different administration bodies, willbe significantly reduced. Moreover, due to its wide scale use, the toolcan serve as a basis for additional digital services provided by themarket or public administrations, further facilitating thedigitalisation of the management of the CAP.

The European Commission may contribute to the design of the FaST andprovide support with data storage and processing service requirements.The functionalities and services of this common platform will be fullycustomised in each EU country to ensure that the tool is adapted to thelocal conditions, takes advantage of the existing knowledge and providesthe desired economic and environmental benefits.

More information can be found at https://ec.europa.eu/info/news/new-tool-increase-sustainable-use-nutrients-across-eu-2019-feb-19_en.