The European Commission has recently adopted new rules on the Farm Sustainability Data Network (FSDN). It aims at marking a significant step towards improved analysis to support a more sustainable agricultural sector and targeted, data-driven policy-making.

As of 2025, new data will be collected at farm level by Member States, providing a more comprehensive understanding of sustainability in agriculture and its economic, environmental and social dimensions.

The new FSDN builds on the long-standing Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN), which has served insights into farm economics for nearly six decades. The FADN has been a source of microeconomic and accountancy data coming every year from more than 80 000 EU farms and sustainability data on environmental and social matters will now be added into the new FSDN.

The FSDN represents an advancement and broadening of the existing FADN by also collecting farm level data on environmental farming practices and social aspects, providing farmers with reporting on their farm performance and improving the data compilation through data sharing with other sources.

The use of the new FSDN is the result of close cooperation among the European Commission and Member States, who have worked together to develop a framework that addresses the need for robust data, while ensuring smooth implementation and minimising burden for farmers and national administrations. Additionally, the FSDN will make it easier to access and use information from different sources, following the principle of “collect once, reuse multiple times”. This will help to reduce the workload for farmers and national administrations at both national and EU levels. Additionally, it will provide a more complete picture and enabling better-informed decisions by bringing together information from the FSDN, CAP strategic plans and IACS, on agricultural practices, environmental impact and economic performance among other topics.

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