Topcon Europe Positioning B.V. announces that the GRS-1 has obtained TÜV certification under the European Union (EU) Agricultural Directive Commission Regulation 796/2004, Article 30. This directive supports the validation of area measurement methods for agricultural land parcels in order to comply with the current Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the EU.   Since the start of 2008, Members States are obliged by article 30(1) of Commission Regulation (EC) No 796/2004 to determine the areas of agricultural land parcels “by any means proven to assure measurement of quality at least equivalent to that required by applicable technical standard, as drawn up at Community level.” That means that proof should be present as to the quality of the area measuring systems used for on-the-spot checks.  

The JRC – Joint Research Centre of the EU commission – has defined a validation scheme for GNSS based measurement equipment and they have set up a certification process. NavCert / TÜV is one administrative body accredited by JRC that can provide this kind of certification for GNSS based area measurement equipment.

The certification for GRS-1 was performed for Category A of the regulation, requiring a buffer accuracy of less than 0.40m, which exceeds the maximum tolerance according to the area measurement validation scheme from the European Commission, Joint Research Centre - ISPRA, Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen, Agriculture Unit.

Stefan Naumann Sales Manager GIS of Topcon Europe said: “The GRS-1 delivers the proof required for accurately measuring land parcel sizes to all Topcon’s agricultural customers. With this certification, they can be confident that they have chosen the right product for this particular task”
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