More than 375 people attended 12 workshops across Europe, and expressed their interest, needs and wishes for the IPM Decisions platform.
From December 2019 to February 2020, IPM Decisions partners ran workshops with IPM Decision Support Systems (DSS) owners/developers, farmers and advisors across 12 EU countries. The workshops were carried out to better understand the needs and wishes of these stakeholder groups for improving access to IPM DSS. In total 375 people were consulted, and their feedback will be used to improve the design and functionality of the IPM Decisions Platform.
In the workshops we first presented our ideas for our Platform, then discussed different elements of the design and delivery with each stakeholder group. The key messages from the groups were:
Farmer and advisor wanted to be able to...
- Access a quick overview of regional risk for important pests and diseases without needing to register/log in.
- Access general information quickly, and then move to more detailed information tailored to their situation if the wanted it.
- Be confident that uploaded data was safe and secure.
- Be confident in the quality of DSS in the platform.
- Avoid the need to re-enter data they had already added elsewhere (e.g. in farm management software or other applications).
- Link to local weather stations/data.
Farmers and advisors were also willing to...
- Pay for good, safe and secure output.
- Share data if this makes results better, on the basis that data are safe and secure.
DSS developers and owners...
- Were interested in cooperating when it helps them to increase number of users of their systems.
- Favoured options to link their systems to the platform rather than fuly integrate their systems. IPM-Decisions is planning four ways to interact with the Platform, ranging from full integration of a DSS to just a promotion link to the own website.
- Liked the option that the Platform provides data that they can use as input for their DSS.
- Liked the option that IPM-Decisions develops API’s for data exchange with the Platform.
The outcome of these workshops has provided valuable information for the developers of the Platform. Later in 2020 we expect to present updated, detailed information on Platform functionality and design.
If you would like to enquire about the IPM Decisions project and stay updated on progress, please get in touch.