What is Czech LPIS?

Need for the creation of a LPIS in the Czech Republic

In 1999, the Czech Republic undertook the European Commission that it will build a new parcel identification system based on user relations (LPIS) before its accession to the EU, as there had been no such system in the Czech Republic before. In 2000-2002, Ekotoxa Opava s.r.o. created the first off-line solution of Czech LPIS. The blocks of used land were plotted using aerial photos and verified with farmers. In June 2003, an amendment to the Agriculture Act came into effect, setting down the process rules for the updating of Czech LPIS. However, the off-line LPIS solution turned out to be inadequate and having operational problems with the management of parcel identification as required by the Agriculture Act. Consequently, the Ministry of Agriculture decided in early 2004 to hire a new contractor and change the philosophy of the LPIS solution.

Requirements for the new technological solution of LPIS

The new technological solution of Czech LPIS was developed by Sitewell s.r.o. in January-March 2004. This solution honours the following requirements and principles:

LPIS is based on a unique central database
The elementary identification unit in LPIS is a farmer's block, which represents a continuous area of agricultural land with one type of crop used by one farmer.
The database is updated on-line in real time over a VPN from the 63 regional offices of MoA – liability for the correctness of data is held by the Ministry of Agriculture
There may always be only 1 effective version of data at a moment for 1 area
Classification of blocks against geographic data layers must be performed automatically as soon as a new version is approved, without manual intervention
A history of changes must be kept for each block – at any time in future, it must be possible to quickly recall the status of the database on any day in the past
The data of blocks used by a farmer may never be changed without the farmer's knowledge

The new technological solution allowed introducing a classification of farmer's block data necessary for the administration of rural development measures. The classification consists in the fact that for each new version of a block, the system recalculates selected characteristics based on intersection with other geographic layers as soon as the version is approved. The classified data include, in particular, characteristics determined from a 3D terrain model, as well as inclusion in less favoured areas and properties needed to determine block suitability for individual agri-environment measures. With these data calculated by the system, the risk of errors and the high costs incurred in connection with the manual calculation of the data in the off-line solution were eliminated.

Benefits of the new LPIS solution for the state administration

The technological solution that consists in storing LPIS data on a single central server and updating them through a web application over the Ministry's private network (VPN) has brought several major benefits:

The total operating costs of the system dropped considerably –a single database is maintained and there is no need to provide costly solutions to errors originating during off-line data transmissions or due to the existence of data copies
Data security and protection of personal information on a single server became much easier to implement than in the off-line solution –another factor that considerably cuts down the cost of system operation and boosts system users' confidence
The need for data copies and the consequent risk of data duplicities have been eliminated
The Ministry of Agriculture does not have to rely on external data producers and may assume full liability for data in the system –which makes it fully compliant with the requirements of the Agriculture Act and the EU
The solution providing automatic geographic classification (categorization) of data directly on the server has allowed eliminating the need for placing orders for repeated recalculations and analyses to external contractors, cutting down the costs considerably. The cost of the creation of automatic classification functions in the system has proved one-year payoff of the investment!
All LPIS users from the state administration as well as among farmers have real-time access to the same, immediately classified data
The response time for a request for data change or for statistic data from LPIS has been cut down to the necessary minimum – everything can be found out on-line in real time, as opposed to the past when there were several-month delays in register updates
An optimum tool for the monitoring of the impacts of rural development measures has been created
The control of compliance with aid rules has been facilitated for the paying agency, making the control much more efficient
Sitewell LPIS helps Czech farmers thanks to the improved comprehensibility of the entire aid system. With data classification and the visualization of farmer's block suitability for individual aid titles in maps, it allows providing farmers with matter-of-fact information about which aid titles for which blocks they may apply to.

Thanks to the new generation of the Czech LPIS solution, it was possible to meet the EU's conditions for aid administration under the common agricultural policy in a timely manner and provide access to EU funds already in 2004.

LPIS is an independent reference register and data in it are updated independently from the aid application administration process at the paying agency. The paying agency uses an XML interface to verify the data of individual farmer's blocks in aid applications against LPIS. It is not possible to approve an aid application concerning a block whose data as specified by the farmer are found inconsistent with the data in LPIS. In addition, the Czech system prevents claiming aid for an agricultural parcel that is not registered as a farmer's block in LPIS. The paying agency also uses LPIS to prepare and evaluate physical on-the-spot checks.

LPIS also serves farmers

Not only is LPIS used by the state to verify information in aid applications, but it also functions as a service for the farmers themselves. A basic goal of LPIS is to allow farmers to obtain high-quality and comprehensible information about the blocks they use from LPIS in a short time.

Therefore they may ask for informative reports and map sets at a scale of 1:10,000 in any of the 63 regional offices of MoA in the Czech Republic. LPIS can offer them elementary data reports and maps allowing them to find out about the status of registered data, as well as more complex reports and maps containing information and symbols that help the farmer make decision on joining agri-environment schemes. Farmers may also obtain pre-printed application forms for single area payments and compensatory allowance for farming in LFA at a regional office in almost no time.

In addition to assistance in the preparation of aid applications concerning agricultural land, LPIS provides farmers with information about farming limitations on blocks resulting from the nitrate directive or about performed agrochemical testing of soils.

A project that will make LPIS accessible by farmers via the Internet is currently being implemented.

With its open information policy, Czech LPIS allows farmers to avoid hiring costly consulting firms and make competent decisions based on high-quality background information.