Origins

The 1992 MacSharry reform linked CAP subsidies to land use. Methods of controlling land use were thus needed to ensure the EU’s financial interests, with CAP being 1/3+ of its budget.  Starting from Regulation 165/1994, this JRC team provided essential technology for the design, implementation and auditing of CAP subsidies, with the policy revised following each scientific advance.

The team's name changed several times to accommodate the occasional JRC restructuring:   from MARS-PAC over MARS-CAP, GeoCAP, Capland to a final GTCAP (GT: originally guidance and tools,  later geodata and technologies)

Technological scope

Major innovations include protocols guiding the:

• agricultural land cover and land use data capture and description
• on-the-spot-checks on eligibility for direct payments and cross-compliance ,
• field boundary validation (using GNSS),
• digital image processing standards,
• satellite sensor benchmarking,
• the Land Parcel Identification System,
• Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition,
• guidance for geotagged imagery (including from smartphones),
• two quality assurance frameworks,
• automated checks via satellite monitoring,
• spatial data interoperability and exchange
• technical guidance for operational AI use (a first).

Outputs are validated methodologies, technical documentation, tools and confidential data sets. Most are now available on this wikis platform.

In addition to this R&D, GTCAP operated 2 annual executive implementation activities on behalf of DGAgri;  the CwRS image acquisition and LPIS QA management.

The signature method

GTCAP achieved results through progressive, collaborative and inclusive collaboration with the legislators, Member States’ administrations, and industry partners.

Over the 3 decades, GTCAP witnessed the coming and going of

• 79 JRC colleagues
• 23 DGAgri counterparts (legislators, desk officers, auditors)
• Hundreds of experts from all Member States and candidate countries (workshops drew 60 to 130 participants,  the annual Conference 250-380 participants)

The curtain

The extraordinary reduction in error rate for the payments achieved over the decades, culminating in today’s figure of under 2% is testimony to the success of this collaborative method.

Because of the low error rates, the legislators delegated controls to the Member States from the 2021 CAP reform (Regulation 2021/2116), ending this activity line.