The activities in the eDWIN project (Internet Platform for Consulting and Decision Support in Integrated Plant Protection) have already passed the halfway point, involving IT and agriculture specialists. On this occasion, we recall the context of the project and its planned results.
The originator and the lead partner of the project is the Wielkopolska Agricultural Advisory Center in Poznan, which invited other partners of the project to cooperation, i.e. the Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center, the Institute of Plant Protection – National Research Institute, the Agricultural Advisory Center in Brwinow and voivodeship agricultural advisory centers. In total, the project is implemented by 19 partners.
The project is implemented for 36 months from June 1, 2019 to May 31, 2022. Plant protection is one of the key factors determining the efficiency and quality of agricultural production. Agricultural producers expect efficiency improvement, while society expects high-quality and health-promoting features. Progress in improving these factors requires common, modern technological and organizational solutions, which in turn sets the direction for the development of services offered by agricultural advisory centers – a direction aimed at digitization and facilitating farmers’ access to information and services provided via the Internet.
PSNC as a technology partner is responsible for the preparation of the central system of the digital platform in which the farmer’s applications, agricultural data sources, mathematical models of plant diseases and measurement infrastructure (meteorological and phenological stations) will be integrated. Tools for agricultural advisors integrated with the central system are also created together with WODR.
The aim of the project is to create a national IT system for plant protection – a system that will significantly affect the quality and quantity of food produced in Poland. The main goal consists of detailed goals:
• support for the implementation of the EU directive on the obligation to apply the principles of integrated plant protection and the national action plan to reduce the risk associated with the use of plant protection products,
• rationalisation of the use of plant protection products by agricultural producers and supporting decision-making in plant protection,
• increasing the safety of the produced food,
• improving the operationalization of data on risk monitoring by entities performing public tasks,
• increasing the effectiveness of actions and decisions made by public institutions,
• equipping the advisory staff of agricultural advisory centers with competences enabling the practical use of decision support systems for plant protection products in practice.
As a result of the project implementation, four e-services will be made available to recipients:
1. Virtual farm.
2. Tracing the origin of agricultural products and plant protection products used.
3. Risk reporting.
4. Sharing meteorological data.
The recipients of the above e-services will be:
• users of plant protection products, in particular farmers, fruit growers, gardeners;
• advisers who are employees of voivodeship agricultural advisory centers;
• food consumers and agro-processing enterprises;
• local government units, public institutions operating in the field of plant protection at the central level;
• universities, research units, research institutes and researchers;
• other public institutions such as the police and fire brigades.
The project is implemented under Measure 2.1 “High availability and quality of public e-services”, Priority Axis II “E-administration and open government” of the Operational Program Digital Poland for 2014-2020. The project is implemented under the name: “Internet Platform of Consulting and Decision Support in Integrated Plant Protection ”. The contract for co-financing the project was signed with the the Center for Digital Poland Projects on June 19, 2019. The total value of the project is PLN 20,920,583.10, including PLN 17,705,089.47 from European funds, and the rest from the state budget.
The project consortium includes:
– Wielkopolska Agricultural Advisory Centre – project leader
– Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center (PSNC)
– Institute for Plant Protection – National Research Institute
– Agricultural Advisory Centre in Brwinow
– and 15 Agricultural Extension Centers
The project “Internet Platform for Advising and Decision Support in Integrated Plant Protection” implemented under Measure 2.1 “High availability and quality of public e-services” of Priority Axis II “E-government and open government” of the Digital Poland Operational Programme 2014-2020. The project funding agreement was signed with the Digital Poland Projects Centre on 19 June 2019. The total value of the project is PLN 20,920,508.02, of which PLN 17,689,792.53 from European funds, with the rest coming from the state budget.
