Chapter 11: what is necessary for conversion of FADN to Farm Sustainable Data Network

PLAC III project has provided support to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management in preparing a proposal of actions and measures required for the conversion of the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) into a Farm Sustainable Data Network (FSDN).

In 2021, in the Farm to Fork strategy, the European Commission  announced its intention to convert the FADN into FSDN, with a view to collect farm-level data addressing the EU Green deal targets and other sustainability indicators. To that aim, a new legislation has been adopted. Regulation (EU) 2023/2674 amending Council Regulation (EC) 1217/2009 as regards conversion of the FADN into a Farm Sustainability Data Network has been adopted in November 2023. The amendments enable expanding the scope of the current network collecting data on EU farms to include data on their environmental and social practices. With this new data collection, it will be possible to benchmark farm performance and give farmers tailored advice and guidance. This will improve the sustainability of farmers, including their incomes.

In Serbia, the Sector for Agricultural Policy within the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management is responsible for preparing, organising and implementing the establishment of the FADN. Data collectors i.e. the extension officers from Agricultural Extension Services are collecting data from agricultural holdings and submitting them to the FADN database. 200 data collectors from all parts of Serbia collected data from 1,735 agricultural holdings for the accounting year 2022.

In order to assess the level of changes the new EU legislation requires, including the legal policy and institutional gap analysis, PLAC III expert has worked with the line Ministry’s Sector for the Agricultural Policy. On 16 January, at a workshop held in Belgrade, project expert Eduard Matveev presented the new regulation and changes it brought. He said that economic dimension remains the basis in FASN, but that environmental – social variables and complement economic variables are added. Discussions on the secondary legislation (delegated/implementing Acts) will continue until July 2024 and the vote on the acts will be in September 2024. First year of data collection for FSDN will be 2026.

Matveev also presented the draft proposal of legal and policy actions and measures required for the conversion of the FADN into
a FSDN in Serbia, which include recommendation that FSDN should rely on voluntary participation. But, as he said, it is important to encourage farmers to participate in the FSDN by using incentives that should set out in a specific plan. FSDN data should refer to agricultural activities and other gainful activities directly related to the holdings in order to make it possible to cover all relevant aspects of holdings’ activities. The transition will require strengthening administrative capacity and also IT system development, to ensure that it meets FSDN’s requirements, Matveev said.

The workshop was attended by representatives of the line Ministry.

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