The database on the impacts of farming practices provides the evaluator with a fundamental scientific basis to design the evaluation of the expected impacts of measures that support/promote various farming practices that are supposed to be beneficial for the environment and the climate. Therefore, the database is a tool that can guide the planning stage of the evaluation. The information available in the database helps the evaluator to better frame the evaluation objectives and manage the evaluation resources towards the most critical effects.
The tool links the likely effects of farm practices with the following:
This background work is helpful because the evaluator does not need to start from scratch. Having a reasonably good idea of which impacts are likely to be essential, the evaluator can manage the human and financial resources accordingly.
In addition, the database supports the evaluator by summarising the most crucial information from critical reviews and meta-analyses and provides a reference to the original scientific review papers.