The DEMETER Agricultural Information Model

  1. Français non disponible
  2. English

The DEMETER Agricultural Information Model (AIM) will expand interoperability of information among the following data domains:

  • Farm data (e.g., field data, field status, soil data, Crops/treatment/fertilisation data, farm input data, energy consumption data, ...)
  • Earth Observation Data (e.g., satellite data, remote sensing imagery, soil maps, vegetation indices, such as NDVI, EVI, NDRE, NDMI)
  • Meteorological data (e.g., temperature, humidity, wind speed/direction, solar radiation, pressure, etc.)
  • Agricultural machinery data (e.g., engine data, fuel consumption, emissions, exhaust gas, NOx-conversion, exhaust temperatures)
  • Representation of data quality metrics
  • Field Operations data (irrigation, fertilisation, soil tillage)
  • Traceability data (transport)
  • Livestock data
  • Financial farm data, benchmarking data and KPIs
  • Farmer information

From the monitoring and evaluation perspective, DEMETER must connect dominant data systems such as FIWARE AgriFood, SAREF4AGRI, ADAPT, INSPIRE and FOODIE (Farm Oriented Open Data In Europe), AGROVOC and Earth Observation data and make them available to stakeholders.

A list of data recorded in the 20 DEMETER pilots and drawn from any possible source, which are underway, include:

Common Data Models and Semantic Interoperability Mechanisms
Relevance for monitoring and evaluation of the CAP

Availability of new data for evaluation: DEMETER’s Agricultural Information Model will encompass a multi-data source integration considering IoT, legacy systems, open data, geographical and satellite information to provide an open and interoperable data integration model. For evaluators, this is particularly useful as it serves two evaluation data purposes. First, it makes data from different sources available through the interoperability of existing databases. Second, it provides access to new data that can address evaluation questions for significant policy interventions despite not being always directly linked to the impact or result indicators. For example, data on animal welfare or machinery at the farm level will be available to evaluators through DEMETER.

As concerns new data, DEMETER aims to digitise field books and Farm Management Information Systems. Field books are an irreplaceable source of information concerning farm practices and, thus, directly linked to the study of agri-environmental issues. DEMETER intends to create a farm management registry system that combines field books and machinery records.

Promoting interfaces and data sharing between farmers and Paying Agencies or between agents of the food supply such as cooperatives, the food industry and banks raises the critical issue of data ownership. This issue remains open and differs from country to country because of the different conditions under which collected data can be anonymised and re-used. This is especially true primarily for farm-level data and other data from stakeholders along the supply chain who may claim confidentiality.

Transferability of the tool depends on each country’s specific arrangements. DEMETER’s Agricultural Information Model architecture will be open and available to any interested stakeholder considering national legislation on information disclosure. The model will be user friendly and will not require programming or other special technical skills.

Last modification date: 
09/12/2021