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Meeting the European Union's digital agriculture requirements

An ITU-FAO compendium for pre-accession countries and territories

Year of publication 2024

Place of publication Geneva, Switzerland ;

Pages 136 p.

Author ITU; FAO;

Publisher ITU ; FAO ;

Product type Book (stand-alone)

Synopsis (short abstract) Agriculture in the European Union (EU) is undergoing a complex process of digitalization. According to FAO and ITU, digital agriculture refers to the enhancement of agricultural and rural development through improved information and communication processes (adapted from Sylvester, 2016). More specifically, it involves the conceptualization, design, development, evaluation and application of innovative ways to use ICT in the rural domain, with a primary focus on agriculture. Provisions of standards, norms, methodologies, and tools as well as development of individual and institutional capacities, and policy support are all key components. Understanding the latest developments and regulations related to digital agriculture in the European Union is becoming more challenging due to the continuous evolution and deployment of digital technologies and the growing interrelationship between digitalization and agriculture across the whole EU Acquis. For the countries and territories whose negotiations ahead of accession to the European Union are continuing, this represents an additional undertaking, as they are being called on to meet these requirements, or indeed, go beyond them. Addressing this issue, this compendium summarizes the EU requirements related to two specific areas of digital agriculture: 1) the establishment of digital information systems to support CAP management, monitoring and evaluation by government authorities, from the design phase to the delivery, auditing, monitoring and evaluation of the systems; and 2) public strategies and interventions supporting the digitalization of agriculture, including CAP support for the provision of farm advisory services and investments, and such cooperation projects as smart villages. The ITU Office for Europe and the FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia co-authored this document to serve primarily as a compendium supporting the entry of EU pre-accession countries1 to the EU single market and the alignment of their agricultural policies with the emerging EU legislation related to digital agriculture, and more specifically, the CAP and its delivery.

Cite this content as:

ITU & FAO, 2024. Meeting the European Union's digital agriculture requirements – An ITU-FAO compendium for preaccession countries and territories. Geneva, Switzerland. 

Language English

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