Converting Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) into Farm Sustainability Data Network (FSDN) : final report

This pilot project aims to support the transition from the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) into the Farm Sustainability Data Network (FSDN). FSDN will provide a more comprehensive understanding of the EU agricultural sector and its progress towards sustainability. This represents a critical step to achieve the environmental and climate goals of the European Green Deal and 2023-2027 Common Agricultural Policy. The main objective of the project was to identify a range of relevant sustainability data to include in the FSDN, covering environmental and socio-economic topics, and to assess their feasibility in terms of data collection. The second objective was to identify potential new methods of data collection, reporting, and storing of FADN/FSDN data to reduce the burden of the overall system, especially on farmers to secure their future voluntary participation. The pilot project identified 16 topics, each of them composed by subtopics, for an overall number of 68 subtopics. The assessment of the feasibility showed that data covering most of the subtopics are already collected in several Member States for national purposes or are feasible to be collected. The use of new tools for data recording and IT systems could help the interoperability of different databases and reduce the need to request data directly from the farmers, fostering a more efficient and streamlined data management process. The establishment of a unique farm ID and EU IT system is very ambitious and would require dedicated and substantial efforts and resources from both the European Commission and the national FADN Liaison Agencies.