There are just under three weeks left for cereals and oilseeds producers to respond to the Combinable Crops Digital Passport consultation.
The consultation on implementing a digital passport for combinable crops closes on Friday, February 2.
Since November 20, 2023, industry bodies have been holding webinars and open meetings to discuss the business case with individual businesses.
The Digital Passport Leadership Group has said it will continue communicating with trade association members and the wider industry to ensure all have an opportunity to take part.
A spokesperson for the leadership group said: “The consultation is vital in helping to refine and improve the business case whilst answering a raft of industry questions.
“This consultation is to ensure that the business case proposed is robust and comprehensive.
“There have been several events across the country where passport users have taken opportunity to feed in their thoughts and ask questions.
“This has been beneficial in establishing views on the business case and highlighting gaps that need to be addressed.”
The leadership group encouraged all passport users to use the next three weeks to input into the process and give their thoughts on the business case.
Digital passports
The annual running cost of the digital passport is currently estimated at £396,000. This means that, over a 10-year period, the cost of the system is £4 million.
Each business will own and retain control of the data they enter in the digital passport system.
Data management will be overseen by a data governance group made up of representatives of all users. In addition to industry representatives, data specialists will be invited to join the group.
The industry leadership group said this group will have complete oversight of all aspects relating to data.
This includes what data is required to be shared via the digital passport, system security standards, GDPR, data quality and transparency and ensuring that data is fed back to growers in real-time as defined in the business case.
Once the consultation is complete, the industry leadership group said it will review all feedback and decide on a way forward.
If the group feels industry response is positive, they will look to fund the project through several means.
One of which will be to approach the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) cereals and oilseeds sector council for levy funding.
