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This time it looks like it's for real: farms will be obliged to digitally complete the Field Notebook, as stipulated by DM March 1, 2021 No. 99707 and EU Regulation 2023/564. This document is contained in the farm file found within the SIAN (National Agricultural Information System), managed by MASAF (Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry) and Agea. While waiting for the official communication, farms will have to continue to communicate all the necessary data to CAAs (Agricultural Assistance Centers).
It all stems from Legislative Decree No. 150/2012 implementing Directive 2009/128/EC of the European Parliament and Council. The main objective is to regulate the use of plant protection products on farms, keeping track of information such as type of product applied, dose, parcel treated, date of treatment and possible deficiency period. This ensures the traceability of agricultural operations, demonstrates the adoption of sustainable practices and provides a means of control toward the use of plant protection products while complying with environmental regulations. While previously it was sufficient to fill out the Field Notebook in paper or digital format with the help of the CAAs, from this year digital compilation should become mandatory in order to further increase transparency and traceability.
At first glance, compiling the Digital Field Notebook might seem like a long and laborious task, but with the xFarm platform it will be simple, quick and intuitive, as soon as SIAN activates the automatic data exchange between the application and the farm file. All the data needed to compile the Digital Field Notebook can be entered conveniently within the application, even from a smartphone, greatly facilitating and speeding up these bureaucratic tasks.
The Digital Field Notebook does not have to be updated on a day-to-day basis, but there are specific timelines stipulated in the regulations. In the case of phytosanitary treatments, for example, the required data must be provided within thirty days of the operation taking place and in any case before the crop is harvested. Some timelines then depend on the type of crop in the field: the shorter the crop cycle, the greater the frequency of updating. For example, inindicating the type of crop present in the field, a horticultural farm will have to follow the rapid crop rotation, while in the case of multi-year crops (vine, olive tree, fruit tree) the frequency of updating will be annual.
The mandatory digitization of the Field Notebook serves to meet the demands of the European Union, which is increasingly pushing forsustainable and transparent agriculture, putting traceability first.
This system, which on the one hand represents an additional bureaucratic burden for farms, on the other hand brings with it potential benefits for farmers, allowing them to:
As xFarm, we do our utmost to always be at the side of farmers, lending a hand in this transition process that can prove difficult for some. We are working to make these bureaucratic operations simple and within everyone's reach by creating useful and practical information materials .
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