H2020 project FAIRshare aims to ensure that farm advisors and their organizations effectively use digital advisory tools and services (DATS), improving agricultural productivity and sustainability through innovation support actions and digital capacity building. The project has been gathering an evidence base of the digital tools and services used internationally.
Digital Advisory Tools and Services (DATS) are technologies which include computer and mobile phone applications and services. They may stand alone, on individual devices, or be connected via the web. Their primary function is to assist advisors to deliver a farmer-focused, decision support service or to assist in administrative or communication tasks. DATS enable data/information to be collected, analyzed and shared between farmers and their advisors, and/or between farmers and other farmers. The term DATS includes the associated backend databases and data transmission technologies, which enable advisor and farmer-facing technologies to work effectively. Also included are off-the-shelf and customized tools, which facilitate decision support through data recording, monitoring, analysis, presentation/visualization and communication between and among advisors and their client farms.
Already collected DATS are gathered in the FAIRshare Inventory of DATS, accessible on the FAIRshare Permanent Networking Facility page, which now includes a new platform feature: the Assessment tool, used for evaluation of the available DATS.
Get involved! Include your DATS in the inventory (How to do it?) or let CEMA know about the digital tools suitable for the Inventory and we will do it for you, particularly if digital tools are:
- Also usable offline
- Can produce a quick result
- Are available on multiple advices
- Have an easy to use interface
Furthermore, over the past year, project partners and advisors across the EU have shared their good practices in the use or development of digital tools or DATS. What is a good practice? A good practice is defined as a key feature of a DATS, for example, a tool may have an easy to use interface or can be used offline. These would both be considered good practices of digital tools.
FAIRshare’s New website section Good Practice Gallery comprises good practice vignettes in a form of short animated videos, which focus on a challenge faced by farmers and their advisors, and describe how the DATS good practice can help address this challenge.
You can visit FAIRshare’s good practice gallery here to take a look at the current good practice vignettes! More good practice vignettes are to come soon, focusing on themes that are important for both advisors and farmers.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 818488