Farmers under scrutiny by the eye in the sky
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Does the camera ever lie? Yes, sometimes, when it is on a satellite hundreds of kilometres high in the sky, monitoring European farms.
Since, January 1, 2023, regular and systematic observation and assessment of agricultural activities and practices by Copernicus Sentinel satellites has been a mandatory feature of the Common Agriculture Policy for EU member states.
This Area Monitoring System (AMS) monitors the area-based schemes of payments to farmers, for compliance.
In Ireland, that means monitoring all the land parcels declared by over 120,000 farmers on their 2024 Basic Income Support for Sustainability applications, and providing assurance on over €1.5bn in scheme payments per year.
It has replaced the previous inspection regime, where 5% were selected and visited for land eligibility inspections.
The Department of Agriculture says the AMS allows more flexibility for farmers, and the option to correct mistakes without penalty.
Farmers learned about how accurate the AMS was when Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue was asked in a Dáil question by Independent Galway East TD Seán Canney what percentage of AMS notifications stated the farmer had sown the wrong crop, were there problems with the crop identification system used in AMS, and what was the cost to his department of the AMS imaging system.
Mr McConalogue said the AMS was an automated system that used computer algorithms to decide on the accuracy of declarations by farmers in their applications.
Examples of what the AMS looks for include the presence of an ineligible (for payment) feature, in particular a permanent structure, for example a house, a farm roadway or a farm building, or an ineligible land use (such as an ineligible crop type).
The AMS also looks for any difference from the crop category declared (arable land, permanent crop, or permanent grassland). For example, the AMS computer algorithm may decide from its images that a protein crop is growing where a spring barley crop was declared on the 2024 BISS application.
The AMS also looks for lack of evidence of agricultural activity such as rearing livestock or growing crops, or maintenance of the agricultural area — for compliance, land eligible for payment must be used for an agricultural activity.
The minister said from July to September in 2024, his department issued 3,341 AMS notifications for the potential presence of incorrect crops, and 92% of these notifications were responded to, with farmers accepting 43% of the AMS notifications and rejecting 53% of them.
All responses required the submission of an AgriSnap photo (farmers registered for the Department of Agriculture's online services can use this geotagged photograph app on their smartphones to submit pictures securely to the department which contain the GPS location co-ordinates of where the photo was taken. Farmers can use AgriSnap to resolve queries that may arise for certain schemes).
Of the 53% of these AMS notifications rejected by the farmer or adviser, 1,416 AgriSnap photos were submitted to support the rejection. A total of 76% of these photos were accepted by the department. The remainder of the photos were deemed inconclusive, and thus a field inspection was required to verify the crop on the ground. To date, 29% of these parcels have a different crop found in the parcel to the crop claimed.
Mr McConalogue said: "I believe the AMS system, as validated and implemented in my department, is performing to a very high standard. It fully satisfies our obligations under the EU regulations, and offers benefits to farmers through reduced onsite checks, and a means to make corrections without penalty.
"It provides clear and concise queries to farmers where needed, avoiding confusion or concern, in a fair, open and transparent way. Within my department, it provides efficiencies in issuing payments to farmers, while also providing improved administration and control of the almost €10bn in Cap funds.
"As with all such systems, the Area Monitoring System is also subject to continuous improvement, and I expect to see development of the system to aid farmers further in the future".
The annual cost of the AMS service provision is €1.13m.
