HORIZONTAL ISSUES
1. Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS)
The system for the administration and control of applications made by farmers on the various supports that the European Union implements under the Common Agricultural Policy is the Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS).
The EU's rules for IACS are regulated by Regulation 1306/2013 on "Financing, Management and Monitoring of the Common Agricultural Policy".
The support that is managed and controlled under IACS is as follows:
• Basic Payment System
• Single Area Payment System
• Other direct payments
• Area and Animal Basis Rural Development Measures
• Environmental Measures for Agriculture
• Field payments to underdeveloped regions
The subsystems that make up IACS are listed below:
• Computer-aided database
• Land Parcel Identification System
• System for defining and registering payment rights
• Support applications
• Integrated control system
• Registration system for farmers who apply for support
The following checks are carried out at all stages of processing the application for assistance:
Visual Controls: Whether the application forms are filled in properly.
Compliance Controls: Controls that compare the data entered to the system against the source documents.
Administrative Controls: Controls to determine whether there is an accuracy match between the reported data and the data in the system.
These controls can be divided into two parts:
Simple Control: Verification is performed by comparing the data obtained in the application with the data recorded in the system in the form of business record.
Cross-checking: A check made to find possible multiple applications in the same area or pay, and to compare the data obtained in the application with the data provided by other businesses.
On-Site Controls: During these checks, the actual status of the farm and the data obtained from the application are checked. On-site inspections for direct payments are made by remote sensing using land studies and / or aerial and satellite images of the area concerned.
Work is underway in our country to establish an IACS system that works with all its elements.
In this scope;
The Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS) has been established and the necessary human resources for the implementation of IACS have been established. In this context; "Training of the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock Employees on IACS Procedures" has been completed and approximately 10.000 staff have been trained.
"Digitization Project of Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS)" started in October 2014. Turkey's orthophoto images were obtained under the project were taken and digitized geographical data base in the LPIS standards. LPIS system allows each agricultural parcel to be defined uniquely in Turkey. LPIS is a system based on "Geographical Information Systems (GIS)" and started to be used for the existing support mechanism.
As of September, "Digitization Project of Land Parcel Identification System" has been completed and all outputs including orthophoto and digitization have been accepted by external quality control.
Alignment of cross-compliance rules and development of IACS software are already underway. In this context, "Project on Training on IACS Software, On-Site Controls and Risk Analysis" was launched in August 2017 and will be finalized in 2019.
The IACS is scheduled to be fully operational until 2019.
2. Farm Accounting Data Network (FADN)
FADN is one of the most important tools used by the European Commission for shaping the Common Agricultural Policy and which includes physical data as well as economic data.
Data gathered by FADN are used for many different purposes (scientific researches, disaster reliefs, etc.), mainly by determining the annual agricultural incomes of the enterprises and measuring the performances of enterprises by monitoring them. Thus, the sectoral effects of applied agricultural policies can be measured. The FADN system is the unique mechanism by which business-based microeconomic data are collected and analyzed.
For the EU member states, since the 1965 mandatory FADN system, data are collected from the 85,000 enterprises selected in 27 Member States, according to a specific sampling plan, representing 6.400.000 commercial enterprises. The legal basis of the system is Council Regulation No. 79/65.
The project "Establishment of the Turkish Pilot FADN System" was carried out in the framework of the 2006 Phare program between 2007 and 2009, in order to contribute to the installation work of the system in our country. The follow-up project, "Ensuring Dissemination and Sustainability of the Establishment of the Pilot FADN System" under the 2009 IPA-I program, started in May 2011 and ended in December 2012.
With the first twinning project started in 2007, FADN system was established in 9 pilot cities. Within the scope of the project, legislative alignment was ensured with the "Regulation on Establishment and Working Procedures and Principles of the Farm Accounting Data Network System" which was published in the Official Gazette dated 22/01/2009 and numbered 27118.
The system was expanded to all over Turkey as of 2015, data are collected from 6000 enterprises already according to the statistical sampling method.
The FADN data collection procedure has changed since 2014 and the FADN software has begun to be used. As of 2015, the mobile application has been passed and the data is collected by tablet computers in field and transferred to the web module. FADN software has been renewed by being integrated with the infrastructure of geographical information systems. At the end of the year, the feedback reports are given to the enterprises receiving the data and the financial analyzes of the enterprises are made.
The system operates on voluntary basis and according to Article 6 of the "Communiqué on the Implementation of the Payments for Participation in Agricultural Enterprises Supported by the Farm Accounting Data Network System" (No: 2017/40), the agricultural enterprises specified in Article 5 of the Communiqué, 500 TL participation support is to be paid.
3. EU Paying Agencies
The main EU legislation on paying agencies is the European Parliament and Council Regulation (EC) No 1306/2013 on the financing, administration and monitoring of the Common Agricultural Policy.
Paying Agencies provide financing for the implementation of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) by the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD).
The functions of the Paying Agencies are:
• Intervention Purchases-Sales
• Export Refunds
• Monitoring of Product Quotas
• Regulation of import and export licenses
• Direct Income Payments
• Rural Development measures to be taken
• Food Aid
• Fishing
There are three upper institutions of Paying Agencies:
1-Competent Authority
Each Member State has to establish a "Competent Authority" which has broad authority, such as the accreditation, monitoring or withdrawal of the Paying Agencies.
2-Certification Authority
The Certification Authority is an independent body separate from the Paying Agency, which monitors the annual accounts of the Paying Agency and its functioning according to international standards and reports to the Competent Authority with the EAGF.
3-Coordinating Agency
If more than one Paying Agency is available in a country, a Coordinator Institution must be established.
The tasks of the Coordinating Agency are:
-To gather and arrange information on the existing Paying Agencies to the Commission,
- To provide accreditation to a Paying Agency to continue or to withdraw accreditation in the light of the annual reports of the Certification Body and the reports of the EU Commission, and to propose to the Competent Authority.
In addition to these three institutions, if there are delegated duties, the "Delegate Organs" participate in the process. In this context:
• Paying Agencies may transfer certain tasks by signing a certain protocol with the appropriate institutions and organizations.
• The accredited organization continues its principal activities.
• Evaluate the existing knowledge of the accredited institutions and use them in the direction of technical staff related tasks.
• Even if the authorization is related to the tasks, the ultimate responsibility lies with the Paying Agency.
In order to the Paying Agency to be accredited, it must have an administrative structure and an internal control system that ensures that payments are legal and orderly. To this end, the paying institution must comply with the minimum accreditation requirements for internal environment, control activities, information, communication and monitoring set by the Commission. Paying agencies that meet these conditions become accredited.
The numbers, institutional structures and practices of the Paying Agencies of the Member States vary from country to country. There are 83 paying agencies in 28 EU countries.
Within the scope of the EU policy in the recent period, it is aimed to have one Paying Agency in the member countries if possible, the provisions of the relevant legislation have also been amended accordingly.
In accordance with the relevant EU legislation, which changes in December 2013; each member state shall take into account its constitutional provisions and shall make the number of accredited paying agencies more than one at the national level; if the member state is composed of various regions, it is obliged to limit it to one paying agency for each region. However, in countries where paying agencies are established at regional level, member states may additionally either declare a paying agency at the national level or grant the administration of such plans to regional payment institutions for the aid schemes to be administered at the national level according to their nature.
4. EU Farm Advisory System (FAS)
"Farm Advisory System" (FAS) means farmers in the European Union; is a system mandated by the Member States in 2007 to assist in raising awareness on food safety, animal health and welfare and input in agricultural production. The FAS covers various public and / or private institutions that provide farm-based farm consultation services in each Member State.
FAS emerged as an element of the CAP, first coming into force with the 2003 reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in the EU. "Cross-Compliance", which is a set of rules under which farmers who want to access direct support under the first column of OTP (direct payments and market measures) must adhere which are composed of "Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions" (GAEC) and "Mandatory Management Requirements" (SMR) system, it is aimed to guarantee cross-compliance requirements with the assistance of on-site counseling services provided to farmers through FAS. In this context, the main objective of the FAS in the EU is to enable farmers to fulfill these obligatory requirements and to avoid criminal consequences in the event of breach of cross-compliance rules.
At the Member State level, the FAS should be at a level to provide counseling to farmers on the cross-compliance rules set out in Articles 4 and 6 of Regulation at least under Regulation 73/2009. However, consultancy systems are not limited to these issues, and Member States may broaden the scope and scope of consultancy systems according to their priorities. On the other hand, Member States are free to decide which farmers will receive priority service from the system, although the first plan requires that the farmers who use direct payments have to be prioritized in the system, after the OTP's Health Check in 2008.
FAS should help farmers become more aware of the environment, food safety and animal health and well-being without affecting the farmers' responsibilities and liabilities for their legal obligations in any way. Counseling services are completely separated from the control and penal control mechanism. For this reason, farmers benefit from their consulting services on a voluntary basis and are free to pass the action as a result of their consulting service. Another fundamental principle of the system is confidentiality, and Member States authorities should be sensitive to keeping confidential information obtained from farmers during consulting services.
At the Member State level, the establishment of the FAS is partly supported by Measure 115 of the European Agricultural Rural Development Fund (EAFRD) as provided in the second column of the OTP. In the form of assistance in the installation of the system, the Member States can be supported in a decreasing pattern for 5 years. Under measure 114, the service fees of farmers who access consulting services are partially financed under EAFRD. The amount of your support is 80% of the eligible cost of each consulting service, with an upper limit of 1500 euros.
In our country; "Agricultural Publication and Consultation System" entered into force on 8 September 2006 with the publication of "Agricultural Publication and Consultation Services Regulation". The system was established to increase productivity in agricultural publishing and consulting services, to enable manufacturers and business owners to benefit from the consultants 'experience in the production process, and to support consumers' healthy nutrition through environmentally friendly production methods. The system in place defines the roles of public institutions, non-governmental organizations, agriculture consultants and agricultural consulting firms; is a legal basis for both public and non-public agricultural publishing and consulting services. Since 2009, support payments have been made to manufacturers and agricultural business owners for consulting services.
The "Agricultural Publication and Consultation System", which is not in line with the EU acquis, the scope of the activities carried out for compliance with the relevant EU legislation, "TR 2014 / AG / 10 / A3-01-Turkey in a Farm Advisory System (FAS) Technical Assistance for the Establishment" project was initiated in the November 23, 2017.