Enabling the digitalisation of agri-government controls through Galileo & EGNOS

The EU space programmes Copernicus and Galileo open new opportunities across all industries. Notably, the high precision systems of Galileo enable the creation of new services and applications or significant improvements in those already in existence. This is particularly relevant across the agriculture industry where rising global food demand and limited natural resources require an increase in agricultural profitability and production. These requirements not only form the main drivers of precision farming techniques, but also the increase in sustainable farming solutions. GNSS is the backbone and enabler of this, with relevant E-GNSS services for agriculture including Galileo OS, EGNOS OS, Galileo HAS, OS-NMA and potentially CS-Authentication.

This potential has not gone unnoticed at policy level. The current reform of the European Union’s Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) has resulted in new requirements that directly affect the way European farmers will claim their aid applications. Additionally, the upcoming post-2020 CAP is further accelerating the use of space and new technologies to achieve more efficient control mechanisms over subsidies distribution and other aspects of CAP.

Coordinated by SpaceTec Partners, EGNSS4CAP a project for the European GNSS Agency (GSA), implements Galileo’s unique features such as dual-frequency capabilities and authenticated location into an application that will make it easier for farmers and Paying Agencies to monitor activities and apply for subsidies. It does this by providing geo-tagged photos to support and complement a Copernicus Sentinel based monitoring approach. The project kicked off in May 2019, and the project results were presented at the MARS Conference on 26-28 November 2019 in Prague, Czech Republic.