Digital organic control - Does it work?

Background and Objective

Several cases of fraud as well as the reports of the European Court of Auditors have shown that the further development of the EU organic regulation will not sufficiently close the known loopholes for fraud and that a further development of the control system is necessary.

Therefore, the project wants to examine the extent to which digitalisation procedures can usefully be applied in the inspection of organic products. Using the example of the organic cereals marketing chain, the project will evaluate the linking of geo-graphical data (GIS) and data collected by sensors with certification data in the context of control activities to improve transparency. Recommendations to improve the control system will be elaborated, considering feasibility of systems without on-site visits, compatibility with applicable law and further use of data for statistical purposes.

Results

The project partners have developed recommendations for the further development of the organic control system for the various actors in politics, administration, control bodies, etc.:

Introduction and execution of operational mass balances and along product chains

A growing number of consumers are willing to pay a higher price for organic products. The price difference entails the risk of fraud. Ths implies an obligation for all parties involved to ensure the integrity of organic products. Mass balances of goods flows along the supply chain are a simple and reliable tool for preventing and combating fraud. For this purpose, digital data of area, crops grown and quantity data as well as transaction data of the traded products are required. No technical equipment and laboratory analyses or batch traceability is required.

Improving digital collection of data for organic control and data infrastructure

The promotion of a digital control and certification infrastructure has many advantages, such as contributing to the fight against fraud through greater transparency in value chains, streamlining the bureaucracy and improving data exchange in the organic control and certification system. For this purpose, existing digital data can be used.

Improvement of yield data collection of organic farms

Yield data on organic farming are not systematically collected and are therefore incomplete. It is true that control bodies collect yield data for their holdings. However, this information is only available internally and usually not digitally. As a result, data are usually not available in a timely manner to use it for predicting yields and for market estimates. The project recommends specific steps that would significantly improve the data availability of organic yields and allow a realistic estimate of the expected harvest volumes.

Contribution of remote sensing

In general, remote sensing can also contribute to improving the data base in organic farming by providing repeated and independently comprehensive information on the state, use and change of the agricultural landscape across large areas and by closing existing time gaps in existing data. A necessary prerequisite for use in organic farming are geo-referenced organic data for which other specific properties are also known in order to develop and calibrate models. A combination with administrative data is recommended.

Introduction of a digital system for control data and mass balancing

The mandatory introduction of a digital system for the collection and presentation of control data (GIS) and a mass balancing system in order to digitally develop the control and certification system, to prevent fraud with organic products and to promote market transparency.

Links and Downloads

orgprints.org/id/eprint/39230/