Livestock farming in Europe is facing challenges, from environmental pressures to animal welfare, efficiency demands and the need for transparent policy compliance. Digi4Live is a European-funded project aiming to tackle these issues through advanced digital technologies. We spoke with Dr Jarkko Niemi, Head Coordinator of the Digi4Live project at LUKE, to learn more about the project’s goals, strategies and expected impact.
Why Digi4Live Was Needed
What would you say are the main livestock challenges in farming in the European Union that keep coming up over the last three decades?
Dr Jarkko Niemi: The livestock sector has persistent challenges regarding profitability. Enhancing profitability is critical for the future of livestock farming. In addition, sustainability issues have gained more and more attention during the past decades. This concerns especially environmental emissions (mainly nutrient runoffs and climate warming impact) and animal welfare issues that have been debated. Societal acceptance of livestock farming, which is linked to environmental and animal welfare issues, is another critical element. Policies also play a key role in both limiting and enabling livestock production. There have been attempts to reduce the administrative burden the livestock sector is facing, but at the same time new requirements have been introduced.
Given these challenges, which core problems does Digi4Live specifically aim to address, and how far has the project progressed so far? For example: how will data harmonisation, AI, sensors or phenomics tools help with animal welfare, environmental impact, traceability, or farm efficiency?
Dr Jarkko Niemi: The livestock sector has become more digital, and it generates a lot of data, but its full potential is not used. Digi4Live is trying to reduce barriers for wider use of data and digital technologies by developing concepts that are based on digital technologies and data sharing, engaging livestock sector actors and producing information that supports standards development, harmonisation of policies and practices and wider collaboration between actors.
Benefits for Stakeholders
How will Digi4Live benefit different stakeholders, from small/medium‑scale farmers to policymakers, tech providers and consumers? Could you explain how the project balances the needs and concerns of these various actors?
Dr Jarkko Niemi: Concepts developed by Digi4Live are targeting different stakeholders. For example, farmers could better monitor and manage their animals and report their administrative data more easily, animal breeders would be able to incorporate new traits in their breeding programs, processors could optimise logistics and obtain environmental sustainability and animal welfare information on their products in new ways. Digi4Live has identified challenges that different stakeholders face when adopting new technologies and is searching for measures that can lower these barriers.
The main target groups of Digi4Live are technology suppliers and food processors, which can play a key role in promoting the adoption of digital technologies and data sharing. Farmers are another key group, and especially smaller farms may have limitations in their capacity to adopt new technologies. Towards the end of the project, we are looking for business approaches that would better enable the use of digital tools and valorise farm data.
TEPs and Their Roles
What are the TEPs and what role does it play in Digi4Live’s overall strategy?
How were the TEPs selected, what kinds of livestock or regions do they cover, and how will their results shape wider adoption?
Dr Jarkko Niemi: Different stakeholder groups must be engaged in project activities. Digi4Live has established four thematic expert panels (TEPs) which take into account stakeholders’ views and help to co-create solutions that enhance the digital transformation of the livestock sector.
TEPs bring together experts to identify issues and opportunities regarding data interoperability and sharing, standards, state-of-the-art technologies and tools, and policy frameworks that improve data use and governance and technology utilisation.
Input from experts is essential to overcome technical, legal and societal barriers related to exploiting digital technologies and data sharing in livestock value chains. TEPs help to make innovation in digital tools, data and governance inclusive, practical and aligned with EU policy and stakeholder needs. The TEPs are open for all interested persons to join and besides open calls, we have made targeted contacts to farmer representatives for example.
Anticipated Challenges
Even when the right digital solutions exist, adoption can be challenging. What do you see as the main barriers, technical, regulatory, or social, to getting Digi4Live’s tools widely used on farms, and how is the project working to overcome issues such as trust in data sharing, privacy concerns, costs, and digital skills?
Dr Jarkko Niemi: In my opinion, the two main challenges are economic and technical. Some new technologies are not affordable to farmers, especially to smallholders. New developments are needed to lower the cost of using technology and to better valorise data and data sharing activities. Interoperability of data and technical systems also needs to be improved, and the lack of interoperability hinders synergetic use of many systems. It is also critical to strengthen trust between actors. This requires, among other things, transparent decision-making rules (including equal treatment of parties involved), trusted and understandable use of AI and fair profit-sharing.
Measuring Success by 2028
What does success look like for Digi4Live by 2028 (the project’s end)? What measurable changes or impacts on sustainability, animal welfare, farm efficiency, transparency, data governance or EU‑wide policy are you hoping to see?
Dr Jarkko Niemi: The ultimate goal of Digi4Live is to increase the capacity of the livestock sector in Europe to benefit from data-generating and digital technologies. We will provide evidence on how enhanced standardisation, communication and data exchange, and repurposed use of data as well as use of digital technologies can benefit farmers, food and technology businesses, and streamline public administration processes.
By the end of the project, we will have introduced case study-based concepts and provided evidence on their impacts on sustainability, animal welfare, farm efficiency, transparency, data governance and EU policies.
We are providing better approaches to utilise AI in the livestock sector and innovative governance models enabling sustainability and resilience to achieve better informed decision-making in the livestock sector. We aim to deliver many digital solutions, reach 1000 farmers, 300 experts and stakeholders by the end of the project and deliver over 20 best practice and policy recommendations.
Looking Ahead
Digi4Live aims to transform livestock farming across Europe by integrating advanced digital tools, harmonising data and creating solutions that are practical, scalable and stakeholder-friendly. By focusing on both innovation and applicability, the project promises a future where farms are more sustainable, animals are better cared for, and European livestock systems are more transparent and efficient.
Explore our Newsroom and follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, X, Instagram, and YouTube for the latest advancements in livestock farming.