Glossary
Definitions for first-mile traceability, EUDR and farmer data.
One short page per term, written to be quoted — with links to official sources where a definition comes from regulation.
In short
The Farmer1st glossary gives short, citable definitions for the terms of first-mile traceability, EUDR compliance, geolocation, farmer data and impact measurement — from due diligence statement (DDS) and polygon to pre-competitive and MRV. Each entry explains why the term matters, how it works and the common pitfalls.
A
- AgroforestryAgroforestry is a land-use system in which trees or shrubs are deliberately grown with crops or livestock on the same land, in a spatial or temporal arrangement, creating ecological and economic interactions. In cocoa and coffee, it typically means growing the crop under shade trees.
- AI agronomistAn AI agronomist is an AI-based advisory assistant that answers farmers' and field teams' agronomic questions, on topics such as pests, diseases, soil and farm practices, using vetted knowledge sources and local context, in accessible formats such as text, voice or images.
- API (application programming interface)An application programming interface (API) is a defined set of rules and endpoints that allow one software system to request or send data to another automatically. In supply chains, APIs connect field tools, ERPs, compliance platforms and public systems such as the EUDR Information System.
- Audit trailAn audit trail is a chronological, tamper-evident record of the creation, modification and deletion of data, showing who did what, when and, where relevant, why. It allows auditors and authorities to reconstruct how evidence, such as a plot map or risk decision, came to be.
C
- Carbon insettingCarbon insetting refers to emission reductions and carbon removals generated by interventions within a company's own value chain, such as agroforestry, soil management or avoided deforestation with supplying farmers, and accounted for in its value-chain (Scope 3) inventory rather than through purchased external offsets.
- Carbon standards (Verra, Gold Standard)Carbon standards are programmes that set rules and methodologies for quantifying, monitoring, verifying and issuing carbon credits from emission reduction or removal projects. Major independent standards include Verra's Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) and Gold Standard, which also address sustainable development impacts.
- Chain of custodyChain of custody is the documented sequence of custody, ownership and transformation of a product from origin to end use, together with the rules (such as identity preservation, segregation or mass balance) that govern how certified or verified material is tracked through each stage.
- Child labourChild labour is work that is mentally, physically, socially or morally harmful to children, or interferes with their schooling, as defined by ILO Conventions No. 138 on minimum age and No. 182 on the worst forms. Not all work by children is child labour.
- Child Labour Monitoring and Remediation System (CLMRS)A Child Labour Monitoring and Remediation System (CLMRS) is a household-level system that identifies children in or at risk of child labour, provides support directly or through referral, and follows each child's situation over time. It is widely used in cocoa supply chains.
- Cooperative (farmer organisation)An agricultural cooperative is an autonomous organisation owned and democratically controlled by its farmer members, which typically aggregates and sells their produce, provides services such as inputs, training or credit, and often holds certification. Cooperatives are a key aggregation point in first-mile supply chains.
- Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD)The Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), Directive (EU) 2024/1760 as amended by Directive (EU) 2026/470, requires very large companies to identify, prevent, mitigate and remediate adverse human rights and environmental impacts in their own operations, subsidiaries and chain of activities.
- Country benchmarking (EUDR)EUDR country benchmarking is the Commission's classification of countries or parts of countries as low, standard or high risk of producing non-deforestation-free commodities, under Article 29. The first list was adopted by Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/1093 and can be updated.
- Cut-off date (EUDR)The EUDR cut-off date is 31 December 2020. Relevant products are deforestation-free only if their commodities were produced on land not subject to deforestation after that date, and, for wood, harvested without inducing forest degradation after that date.
D
- Data consent (farmer consent)Data consent is a person's freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous agreement to the processing of their personal data, as defined for example in the EU GDPR. In farmer programmes, it covers what is collected, for what purposes, who can access it and how to withdraw.
- Data residencyData residency is the requirement, whether legal, contractual or chosen, that data is stored and processed within a specific geographic location, such as a country or region. It is distinct from data sovereignty, which concerns which laws and authorities govern the data.
- Data sovereigntyData sovereignty is the principle that data is subject to the laws and governance of the nation, community or individual it concerns. In agriculture, it covers national control over farmer and land data, and farmers' control over how data about them and their farms is used.
- Deduplication (record linkage)Deduplication, or record linkage, is the process of identifying records that refer to the same real-world entity, such as a farmer or plot, across or within datasets, and merging or linking them so each entity is counted once.
- DeforestationUnder the EUDR, deforestation is the conversion of forest to agricultural use, whether human-induced or not. Forest means land over 0.5 hectares with trees higher than 5 metres and canopy cover above 10%, excluding land predominantly under agricultural or urban use.
- Deforestation-freeUnder the EUDR, deforestation-free means that relevant products contain, were fed with or were made using commodities produced on land not subject to deforestation after 31 December 2020, and that any wood was harvested without inducing forest degradation after that date.
- Digital public infrastructure (DPI)Digital public infrastructure (DPI) refers to shared, interoperable digital systems, such as digital identity, payments and data exchange, built on open standards and governed in the public interest, on which governments and private actors can deliver services at scale. Agricultural DPI includes farmer registries and traceability layers.
- Downstream operator (EUDR)Under the amended EUDR, a downstream operator is any natural or legal person who, in the course of a commercial activity, places on the market or exports relevant products made using relevant products all of which are already covered by a due diligence statement or simplified declaration.
- Due diligence report (DDR)A due diligence report (DDR) is a practitioner's term for the evidence file that supports an EUDR due diligence statement: plot geolocations, deforestation and legality analysis, supply-chain information and mitigation measures. The EUDR requires this evidence but does not define a DDR format.
- Due diligence statement (DDS)A due diligence statement (DDS) is the electronic declaration an operator submits in the EUDR Information System before placing relevant products on the EU market or exporting them, confirming that due diligence was carried out and no or only negligible risk was found.
E
- EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR)The EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, prohibits placing cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, rubber, soya and wood products on the EU market, or exporting them, unless they are deforestation-free, legally produced and covered by a due diligence statement or simplified declaration.
- EU TRACES and the EUDR Information SystemEU TRACES is the European Commission's online platform for certification and trade controls. The EUDR Information System is a specialised TRACES tool where operators, downstream operators, traders and authorised representatives register, submit due diligence statements or simplified declarations, and receive reference numbers.
F
- Farmer registry and farmer IDA farmer registry is a structured, maintained database of farmers identified by a unique farmer ID, with attributes such as location, household, plots, crops, organisation membership and consent status. It is the base layer for traceability, due diligence, payments and farmer services.
- Farmer survey and representative samplingA farmer survey is a structured collection of information directly from farmers, on topics such as practices, income, labour or wellbeing. A representative sample is a subset of farmers selected, usually at random within defined groups, so results can be generalised to the whole population with known precision.
- Field agentA field agent is a person employed or contracted by a cooperative, company, programme or government to work directly with farmers: registering them, mapping plots, collecting survey and transaction data, delivering training and verifying information. Field agents are the main source of first-mile data.
- First-mile traceabilityFirst-mile traceability is the ability to link a volume of an agricultural commodity to the specific farmers and plots that produced it, through harvest, collection and aggregation up to the first processing or export point. It is the foundation of deforestation, legality and social due diligence.
- Forced labourForced labour is all work or service exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the person has not offered themselves voluntarily, as defined by ILO Forced Labour Convention No. 29 (1930).
- Forest baseline (2020 forest map)A forest baseline is a map of forest extent at a reference date against which later change is measured. For the EUDR, it describes forest on 31 December 2020. The JRC Global Forest Cover 2020 map (GFC2020) is a global, non-binding reference produced to support EUDR risk assessment.
- Forest degradation (EUDR)Under the EUDR, forest degradation means structural changes to forest cover taking the form of converting primary or naturally regenerating forests into plantation forests or other wooded land, or converting primary forests into planted forests. The criterion applies to products containing or made using wood.
- Free, prior and informed consent (FPIC)Free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) is the right of Indigenous Peoples, recognised in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, to give or withhold consent to projects affecting their lands, territories or resources, freely, in advance and fully informed. It is also good practice with local communities.
G
- GeoJSONGeoJSON is an open standard format, defined in IETF RFC 7946, for encoding geographic features such as points, lines and polygons, with their properties, in JSON. It uses longitude-latitude coordinates in WGS 84 and is the format the EUDR Information System accepts for bulk geolocation uploads.
- Geolocation (EUDR)Under the EUDR, geolocation is the geographical location of a plot of land described by latitude and longitude coordinates with at least six decimal digits. For plots of more than four hectares used for commodities other than cattle, it must be a polygon describing the plot's perimeter.
- Good agricultural practices (GAP)Good agricultural practices (GAP) are a collection of principles applied to on-farm production and post-production processes that aim at safe and healthy agricultural products while taking into account economic, social and environmental sustainability, as framed by FAO.
- GPS accuracyGPS accuracy, more precisely GNSS positional accuracy, is how close a recorded coordinate is to the true position on the ground. It depends on the receiver, satellite visibility, canopy, terrain and method, and differs from precision, which is the number of decimals recorded.
- Grievance mechanismA grievance mechanism is a routinised, non-judicial process through which people affected by business activities, such as farmers, workers or communities, can raise complaints about adverse impacts and seek remedy. The UN Guiding Principles set effectiveness criteria for such mechanisms.
L
- Legality requirement (EUDR)The EUDR legality requirement means relevant commodities must be produced in accordance with the relevant legislation of the country of production, covering land use rights, environmental protection, forest rules, third parties' rights, labour rights, human rights, free prior and informed consent, and tax, anti-corruption, trade and customs rules.
- Living incomeA living income is the net annual income required for a household in a particular place to afford a decent standard of living for all its members, including food, water, housing, education, health care, transport, clothing and other essentials, plus provision for unexpected events.
M
- Mass balanceMass balance is a chain of custody model in which certified or verified material may be physically mixed with other material, while an administrative system ensures that the volume sold as certified never exceeds the volume of certified input, adjusted for conversion rates.
- Measurement, reporting and verification (MRV)Measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) is the process of quantifying an outcome, such as greenhouse gas emissions, carbon removals or programme impact, reporting it with transparent methods and data, and having it checked by an independent party against a defined standard.
- Micro or small primary operator (EUDR)Under the amended EUDR, a micro or small primary operator is a natural person or micro or small undertaking in a low-risk country that places on the market or exports relevant products it has itself produced. It submits a one-time simplified declaration instead of due diligence statements.
N
- National traceability systemA national traceability system is a government-operated or government-mandated system that registers producers, plots and transactions for one or more commodities across a country, to support export compliance, sector regulation and public services. Several producer countries are building them in response to the EUDR.
- Negligible risk (EUDR)Under the EUDR, negligible risk is the level of risk where, based on a full assessment of product-specific and general information and, where necessary, appropriate mitigation, relevant commodities or products show no cause for concern of being non-compliant with the deforestation-free or legality requirements.
O
- Offline-firstOffline-first is a software design approach in which an application works fully without a network connection, storing data locally on the device and synchronising it with a central system when connectivity is available, with rules for resolving conflicts.
- Operator (EUDR)Under the EUDR, an operator is any natural or legal person who, in the course of a commercial activity, places relevant products on the EU market for the first time or exports them, excluding downstream operators. Operators must exercise due diligence and submit a due diligence statement.
- Overlapping plotsOverlapping plots are plot polygons that share part of their area with other recorded plots. Beyond small edge effects from GPS error, significant overlaps usually signal mapping errors, duplicate registration, disputed land or fraudulent declarations.
P
- Plot of land (EUDR)Under the EUDR, a plot of land is land within a single real-estate property, as recognised by the law of the country of production, that enjoys sufficiently homogeneous conditions to allow an evaluation of the aggregate level of risk of deforestation and forest degradation associated with commodities produced on it.
- Polygon (plot boundary)A polygon is a closed geometric shape defined by an ordered series of latitude and longitude points that outlines the boundary of a plot of land. Under the EUDR, polygons are required to geolocate plots of more than four hectares used for commodities other than cattle.
- Pre-competitive collaborationPre-competitive collaboration is cooperation that competing companies choose to undertake on needs that confer no competitive advantage, such as fraud checks, agronomic knowledge, research access or common farmer records, while each company keeps its own data and commercial relationships private.
- Protected areas (WDPA)Protected areas are clearly defined spaces recognised and managed, through legal or other effective means, for the long-term conservation of nature. The World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA), managed by UNEP-WCMC and IUCN via Protected Planet, is the most comprehensive global dataset of them.
R
- Reference number (EUDR)An EUDR reference number is the identifier the EUDR Information System assigns to each due diligence statement on submission. Operators pass it to downstream operators and traders, and it is made available to customs when products are released for free circulation or exported.
- Relevant commodities and products (EUDR)Under the EUDR, relevant commodities are cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, rubber, soya and wood. Relevant products are the products listed in Annex I, identified by Harmonised System (HS) or Combined Nomenclature codes, that contain, have been fed with or have been made using those commodities.
- Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG)Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) is an AI technique in which a system first retrieves relevant passages from a defined knowledge base, such as agronomic guides or regulations, and then has a language model generate an answer grounded in those passages, often with citations.
- Risk assessment (EUDR)Under the EUDR, risk assessment is the second step of due diligence: the operator analyses the information collected against the criteria of Article 10 to establish whether a product risks being non-compliant. Products may be placed only if the risk is none or negligible.
- Risk mitigation (EUDR)Under the EUDR, risk mitigation is the third step of due diligence: where risk assessment finds a non-negligible risk, the operator adopts adequate measures, such as requiring more information, independent surveys or audits, or supporting suppliers, until the risk becomes negligible.
S
- Satellite deforestation alerts (GLAD, RADD)Satellite deforestation alerts are near-real-time signals of probable forest disturbance detected from satellite imagery. Public systems include the GLAD alerts from the University of Maryland, based mainly on optical data, and RADD alerts from Wageningen University, based on Sentinel-1 radar, which sees through clouds.
- Scope 3 emissionsScope 3 emissions are all indirect greenhouse gas emissions that occur in a company's value chain, outside its own operations and purchased energy, as defined by the GHG Protocol. For agri-food companies, they include emissions from farming and land-use change in supplying farms.
- Segregation and identity preservationSegregation is a chain of custody model in which certified or compliant material is kept physically separate from other material at every stage, though it may be mixed with other compliant material. Identity preservation goes further, keeping material from each farm, group or origin separate.
- Self-intersection (polygon error)A self-intersecting polygon is a boundary whose edges cross each other, creating a figure-eight or 'bow-tie' shape. It is invalid under the OGC Simple Features standard, and its area and overlap calculations are unreliable.
- ShapefileA shapefile is a widely used vector geospatial data format that stores geometries (points, lines or polygons) and attributes across a set of files, at minimum .shp, .shx and .dbf, with the coordinate system usually described in a .prj file.
- Side-sellingSide-selling is the sale of produce by a farmer to a buyer other than the cooperative, company or programme they are contracted to or registered with, often for immediate cash or a better price. It breaks the link between registered plots and delivered volumes.
- Smallholder farmerA smallholder farmer is a farmer who operates a small agricultural holding, typically relying mainly on family labour. Definitions vary by country and crop; a threshold of about two hectares is often used in research. Smallholders produce a large share of cocoa, coffee and rubber.
- Supply shedA supply shed is the geographic area from which a facility, such as a mill, warehouse or buying station, or a company sources a commodity. It is typically estimated from supplier locations or travel distance and used for landscape-level risk analysis when plot-level data is incomplete.
T
- Trader (EUDR)Under the amended EUDR, a trader is any person in the supply chain, other than the operator or downstream operator, who in the course of a commercial activity makes relevant products available on the EU market. Traders keep supplier and customer information but do not submit due diligence statements.
- Training impact and knowledge gapsTraining impact is the measurable change that a training programme produces in participants' knowledge, practices and outcomes, such as yields or income, compared with a baseline or control. A knowledge gap is the difference between what farmers know and what a practice requires, identified before training.
- Tree survival rateTree survival rate is the proportion of trees planted in a programme that are still alive at a given time after planting, usually expressed as a percentage and measured at defined intervals, such as after one or three years.
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