Digital Label Compliance Newsletter #2 – January 2024

Closing the year with energy & enthuiasm!

The last 2 months of 2023 saw the DLC team run 2 successful workshops with the help of local national
associations and with participation of external stakeholders.

In November Crop Life Europe (CLE) and AIPROM organized in Bucharest, Romania an information
session on the Digital Label Compliance ( DLC) project with over 70 stakeholders from Authorities, Farmer unions, Farm management system companies and local Crop protection industry. A significant
achievement as Romania is one of the 3 pilot countries for the project in 2024.

Martyn Griffiths, member of the Steering Team of DLC in CLE made a presentation explaining the project,
which was well received with positive messages of support for the project, and an active discussion on the future implementation of DLC. A clear message was that digital machine & software readable-labels will be identical to paper ones, but that the new format will facilitate the access to safety information as well as the transfer of the digital label to Farm Management Systems and smart devices. In addition, the DLC initiative can support farmers in the collection of data on PPP use, which will become a legal requirement for farmers to provide to national authorities their usage data electronically based on EU Regulation 2023/564.

Thank you AIPROM for your support in organising this great session!

In December, another Workshop was held in Frankfurt, Germany with the DLC team and farmers
from the local areas who were there to give us valuable feedback about DLC. Germany is also one
of the Pilot countries of the DLC project

• DLC App and Website Feedback and Next Steps: Successful demonstration of the DLC website and app with valuable feedback from guest farmers/growers. Initiatives are underway to integrate this feedback into a detailed storyboard, shaping the future development of these tools for upcoming releases.

More news from the Frankfurt workshop…

• Digitization Progress and Strategic Coordination: Significant advancements in label digitization
  by member companies. The meeting highlighted the importance of synchronizing with national
  associations and regulatory bodies for effective milestone management. Plans to clarify the
  role of the DLC app and website are in motion, alongside considerations for expanding demo
  sessions to other European farmers.
• Pilot Phase Advancements and Long-Term Roadmap: Notable progress in preparation for the
  upcoming proof of concept and pilot phases, with an emphasis on finalizing app requirements
  to meet launch timelines. The meeting set a clear target for label digitization, aligning with the
  pilot phase’s needs. Discussion on the strategic roadmap included aligning immediate actions
  with long-term vision and ensuring the project remains future-ready and adaptable to evolving
  industry needs.
  
  
  So what is around the corner?
  
  
• Initiating Proof of Concept (Starting End of January): We are embarking on the Proof-ofConcept phase to evaluate the digital label platform and DLC website/mobile app, aiming to
  validate functionality and discern areas for improvement with key stakeholders’ collaboration.
  
• Pilot Rollout (Commencing April): The pilot phase, planned to begin in April, will be deployed
  in three successive waves. The initial wave tests select crop-product combinations, with
  subsequent waves progressively broadening the scope and scale, laying the groundwork for a
  comprehensive full-scale launch. As we progress from one wave to the next, the number of
  test users will also grow, covering a representative diversity of farmers.

It’s all about people: Teamwork divides the task and doubles the success!

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A great start to 2024

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Successful 2nd webinar for providers of farm management systems

On January 17th , the DLC team organized a webinar for providers of farm management systems (FMS).
About 40 participants attended the webinar.

The webinar was a follow-up to the webinar held in March 2023. The aim of the webinar was to keep
providers of farm management systems informed about the Digital Label Compliance project. Providers of FMS can and will play a key role in digital farming. Some FMS already include a database with crop
protection data. During the webinar it was underlined that DLC wants to collaborate with related sectors,
like the FMS providers. DLC is already working closely with organizations like COPA-COGECA and CEMA to ensure interoperability and alignment with the members of these organizations.

FMS providers were invited to join the digital crop protection journey, provide feedback on the DLC
outputs and discuss how it can be customized to fit their specific needs. Immediately after the webinar,
a first FMS provider contacted the organization to see whether and, if so, in what form collaboration is possible.

In autumn this year a new webinar for FMS providers will be organized. The slide deck and a recording of
the webinar are available upon request. Email to: ottenheim@brabers.nl

News from the technical teams:

• The Web and Mobile Application has been released for a first phase of testing through a Proof of Concept to a limited number of users within the DLC/AgriGuide project.

• The Application provides access to a limited number of labels and enables search by crops and pests as well as access to label data through scanning of the EAN 13 barcode or 2D Data Matrix using CRISTAL common industry practice.

• A first version of User Profile is available to enhance user experience through ability to create bookmark and save information about a particular product.

Here are a couple of screenshots to share the current status of our Mobile Application

• We will use our experience from the two-week PoC phase to inform our preparations for the Pilot, which
  we are preparing for now and plan to launch in April.

A great start to 2024

More news from the technical teams:

Label digitization has stepped up a gear, with companies moving beyond digitizing a few labels to working on tens of labels. This brings with it the challenge of managing the reference terms and quality checking, so we now have two working groups. One for reference data and one for QA/QC steps.

DLC heavily relies on controlled vocabulary dictionaries, or reference data. This ensures consistency
across the whole database, allows DLC multilanguage capability and interoperability (machine readability) with the various platforms that will, in future, interact with the DLC API.

Creating our reference data involves combining existing dictionaries into a single, coherent reference
workspace. For example: crop and pest dictionaries rely on EPPO codes, and crop stages are expressed in the BBCH scale. Those dictionaries are curated to avoid duplicates, unnecessary data or fill in missing
terms. Using this data we can provide automated error highlighting, consistency, and better
interoperability with other systems.

The QA/QC team has defined a set of quality check process steps which we are now using in a simplified
form for the PoC phase and will use more completely as we get ready for the Pilot. It includes a set of
validation rules which are being implemented in the DLC Platform to flag inconsistent, unexpected or
unusual data entries, as well as the obvious errors.

Finally, as part of the digitization process, we have brought a partner onboard who is helping companies
who want to outsource some or all of their label digitisation work. These companies still do their own
quality checks and take responsibility for their own label information.

Digital Label Compliance will soon be
known as AgriGuide!

Since we have been presenting the DLC project, we have been receiving the following feedback from our
stakeholders, both internally and externally:

1) The word Compliance may be perceived differently by our different stakeholders, and we want to
be consistent in our messaging
2) DLC is more than just a label – we have a vision that encompasses sustainable agriculture
3) Our long-term goal is to expand and include stakeholders not part of CLE today as active
contributing partners. To do so, we need to have a look and feel that is not 100% dependent on
CLE’s branding image.

So as of February, we will begin our transition to our new name, logo and brand identity:

What’s next?

• The theme for this year’s annual conference is Envisioning Tomorrow’s Agriculture: Building the Toolbox. The conference is hybrid with both Physical and Virtual participation possible.

• The DLC project will be highlighted in a panel discussion on Day 1 under our new name AgriGuide and we will be speaking about AgriGuide – Helping Farmers Comply with Increasingly Complex Legislation

• We hope to see many of you at the conference. Come by our AgriGuide demo display to say hello or learn more about the project and the preparations for the launch of the pilot project in Germany, Italy and Romania !