Introducing the "E-agriculture" platform, facilitating farmer access to market information and agrometeorological data

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Water Economy of North Macedonia is dedicated to enhancing agricultural information systems through digitization. Their objective is to improve data for policy-making and facilitate the transition towards more productive and sustainable agriculture in line with sustainable development goals.

Their efforts span from fundamental systems like the Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS) and the Land-Parcel Identification System to more recent initiatives. These include the development of the agro-meteo website by the National Hydrometeorological Service and the launch of the "E-agriculture" web platform (http://e-zemjodelstvo.mk ), created with technical support from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

The newly launched "E-agriculture" web platform offers enhanced accessibility to essential national digital systems like the Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS) and up-to-date agrometeorological data. These resources are now conveniently available in one centralized location. Notably, the platform introduces innovative features such as the National Spatial Database within the global Earth Map platform (www.earthmap.org) (https://northmacedonia.earthmap.org). With support from FAO, North Macedonia becomes the first country in the world to have its own national sub-domain on the Earth Map, providing valuable spatial data to inform agricultural policies and adapt agricultural production to climate change at local and national levels.

The "Maps" section of the E-agriculture platform includes the Earth Map tool, granting access to national and international agro-ecological spatial data for institutions, farmers, scientists, and the general public.

Moreover, the newly introduced "E-agriculture" platform includes the "My Farm" tool, empowering farmers to maintain records of input costs and income for their agricultural activities. This tool allows producers to enhance the management of their agricultural operations at no cost. Beyond record-keeping, the tool offers the capability to generate automated reports for assessing the profitability of different agricultural products. This feature facilitates planning and decision-making processes to enhance productivity while minimizing the use of environmentally harmful production materials.