With the vouchers, precision farming tools – such as weather stations – could penetrate the market faster because the acceptance by farmers will be faster – without having the risk of spending money for new technologies.
Vouchers to stimulate use of precision ag in Europe
C
EUROPE BY HUGO CLAVER
eettar (the European Confederation of Agricultural, Rural and Forestry Contractors) and Cema (the Europe- an Agricultural Machinery Industry
Association) have come together to propose an innovative incentive: a smart technologies voucher. This voucher would allow farmers to access advanced technologies delivered by land-based contractors. This offers small and medium-sized farms the possibility to use new technologies they are not able to finance themselves.
By using the equipment and the skilled work- force provided by contractors, all types of farms are to benefit from the same quality of technology in proportion of their respective size. This would allow small farm holdings to compete with bigger farms equipped with the most-advanced equipment, which is also to
have an indirect positive effect on rural devel- opment. New invoicing and payment systems could be used by farmers or foresters by which the added value brought by contractors will be identified in detail. Another effect can be, that precision farming tools penetrate the market faster because the acceptance will be faster. Farm holdings of all sizes would be bet- ter able to test the additional value of preci- sion farming technologies through their con- tractors first, before potentially considering a new investment.
Technology neutral According to Ceettar and Cema, the voucher system should be technology neutral and as harmonised as possible across the EU to avoid market distortions. It should be well defined in time and scope, to provide enough legal cer- tainty to investors, contractors and manufac- turers. Additional proportional support should also be provided to the farmer who adopts at
least four technologies, proving that he/she is using a full set of digital tools on the farm.
Entice young people The amount of the voucher is to depend on the total amount of hectares that the farmer would use the precision agricultural services from the contractor for. Ceettar and Cema further say that providing indirect support to contractors through such vouchers will also entice young people to be part of a business environment that is increasingly important in rural areas. Young farmers will not need thereby to in- crease their operating costs and they will be enabled to hire more skilled work. Benefits for the farmer will also include higher yield and lower input costs, states the joint position pa- per. Finally, vouchers should be available in all member states in order to ensure a geographi- cal level playing field. In this view agricultural technologies standard values would need to be determined at member state level.
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