The European way of controlling area based subsidies

The European Union's agricultural policy (CAP) was changed in 1992; the subsidies of production were replaced by area based subsidies. In Denmark this led to the construction of a control system based on a national register of agricultural information (GLR/CHR) and a field block map, both managed by the Danish Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries. This register stores among other things the yearly claims for subsidy from more than 60000 farmers, information on husbandry and fertilization etc. In 1996 the control system was used for the first time. The Remote Sensing Unit at the Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences has since 1993 performed a part of the control of the area-based subsidies by remote sensing. In 2000 it was possible for the farmers to fill in their application via a new Web-based GIS instead of the old paper applications and maps. This paper describes how the control of the agricultural crops is performed using these new opportunities.