Spain New Technological Tender

The Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food through the Spanish Agricultural Guarantee Fund FEGA has published the report of activities and maintenance procedures of the Geographic Information System for the Identification of Agricultural Plots SIGPAC during the year 2018 where It explains the importance of this geographical database a reference base for the identification of agricultural plots within the framework of the Common Agricultural Policy CAP. The Ministry coordinates the update of the system.The report also collects in detail all the annual updates that are made in it in order to facilitate the completion of the Single Application to the nearly 700000 producers requesting CAP benefits in the 2019 campaign.The SIGPAC is the fundamental instrument of the Integrated Management and Control System SIGC of the CAP surface aids being the only reference base for the identification of agricultural plots in the framework of the CAP by allowing unequivocal geographical location of the surfaces their geographical delimitation and quantify the admissible area for payments of each plot.In this way the SIGPAC has become one of the keys for the application management and control of the CAP surface aids both in terms of direct aids and surface aids granted in the framework of rural development programs.Thanks to SIGPAC it will be possible starting on October 16 to pay more than 5.4 billion in aid per CAP area to the 693000 farmers who submitted their Single Application in 2019 declaring a total of 22.1 million hectaresSYSTEM UPDATESThe information contained in the SIGPAC is subject to continuous changes to reflect the reality of the territory as soon as possible carrying out various annual maintenance and updating activities.It is necessary to highlight the systematic review of changes by photointerpretation of the new aerial orthophotographs as well as the review of all the plots that enter the system that is that had not been declared in the previous years the convergence works with the information received from the cadastre not only the punctual changes in the plot but also the massive changes derived from large actions such as civil works or land consolidation. Also noteworthy is the integration of the results of the on-the-spot controls of the CAP grants and the request for modification allegations of the information contained in the database.Together with these activities others stand out such as the work related to the update of the grass admissibility coefficient CAP the renewal of information on permanent pastures and surfaces of ecological interest SIE the work of specific photointerpretation of landscape elements as well as the update of other information not related to aid management.All these tasks are backed by the quality control of the SIGPAC which aims to ensure quality and consistency in the structure and updating of the system. In this way it is possible to avoid a systematic failure in the SIGPAC that could entail the imposition of financial corrections by the European Commission.In addition in the framework of the new controls of the CAP aid through surface monitoring a procedure based on the permanent and systematic observation of the ground based primarily on the use of Sentinel images the quality of the SIGPAC is a fundamental requirement which is why you must maintain a high level of accuracy and updating ensuring the surface measurements of the parcels in detail.It is important to note that the farmer who declares the enclosures for which the CAP grants are requested is ultimately responsible for the information both graphic and alphanumeric registered in the SIGPAC being true and coincident with reality.OTHER CONTENTS OF THE SIGPAC VIEWERThe SIGPAC database contains not only information to support various aspects of the CAP support management but also other types of content that is publicly displayed in the SIGPAC Viewer at the request of various units of the Administration attending the growing demand for greater information and greater interoperability with other databases.Having data on agricultural plots in terms of boundaries and areas uses and coverage areas of ecological interest landscape elements etc. are extremely valuable for obtaining knowledge about the spatial distribution of crops changes in the uses of land the evolution of agricultural areas and pastures the connectivity of the Natura 2000 network in larger rural areas elements that are essential to achieve the objectives of sustainable development of the territory reduction of greenhouse gas emissions sustainable management of natural resources and climate action.In this way the concept of SIGPAC transcends its use as a tool for the management of CAP assistance becoming a key element of territorial management contributing to achieving the climate and environmental objectives of the European Union.