The tool can combine data concerning three distinct agricultural practices:
- Crop harvesting: Five different satellite indices can show if a specific parcel is harvested in a cultivation period.
- Crop practices: This component includes the use of catch crops, nitrogen-fixing crops or of no crop at all, i.e., fallow.
- Ploughing and tilling of arable land and grasslands: Ploughing does not comply with the identification and definition of permanent grassland. Tillage detection is a handy tool and may be developed into a stand-alone product in the future.
An example of the use of agricultural practices for the monitoring of Ecological Focus Areas (EFAs) can be accessed at: http://esa-sen4cap.org/content/agricultural-practices
This product and its components focus on the cross-compliance of agricultural practices related to permanent grasslands and practices adopted within the framework of EFA obligations. However, the information produced by this tool is beneficial for the evaluation of the policy’s impacts on the climate, environment and natural resources. Agricultural practices are essential when evaluators assess the effects of measures: on soil organic matter or erosion relative to ploughing, tilling and crop practices; on quantity and quality of water concerning ploughing, tilling, and the presence of catch crops; on biodiversity concerning late harvest or no harvest. In addition, these practices are part of carbon farming, i.e. the set of agricultural methods aimed at sequestering atmospheric carbon into the soil and in crop roots, wood and leaves.
Downloading the package is open to anyone and free of charge. Adopting the tool assumes that the IT infrastructure is adequate and that the evaluator can use the data. The computing system’s specifications are detailed at: http://esa-sen4cap.org/content/download-package-description
Several factors may limit the utility and functionality of EO. The most critical limitation is the extent of parcels for which the algorithms are inconclusive as concerns the presence of certain practices. Inconclusive parcels may be due to specific EO factors such as cloudiness or the prevalence of small parcels or difficulties in training the algorithms to estimate the indicators of farm practices. Another difficulty is related to the effort and time needed to link the agricultural practices map with the LPIS and IACS.
