The Archipelago Sea conservation project coordinated using an online service

When thousands of farmers are invited to join Finland’s largest single water protection project, everything must go smoothly. Southwest Finland ELY Centre, the KIPSI project coordinator, is delighted with an online service created in record time by Gofore.

The Archipelago Sea is the only Finnish marine area in which the phosphorus load is continuously growing. The aim of the ongoing KIPSI project is to reduce this load by treating 50,000–80,000 hectares of arable land with gypsum over the next three to five years.

“Gypsum retains phosphorus, reducing the runoff of suspended solids by up to 50% over a 5-year period. A total of 3,400 farmers in Southwest Finland are being invited to contribute to environmental protection by ordering gypsum for their fields,” says Pekka Salminen, who is in charge of the KIPSI project at the ELY Centre for Southwest Finland.

Accurate information on where the gypsum will be spread is required for coordination of the massive post-harvest logistical chain. Farmers will use the online service to report such information.

It was clear from the outset that the solution developed should be as easy as possible to use.

“Tools cannot be the weak link in water protection. One farmer may order gypsum for hundreds of parcels of land, so clicking on individual plots or reporting numbers of fields via the service is out of the question.”

Salminen says that the result has met expectations.

“The service has been in use for a few weeks and has worked smoothly. We can now catch our breath and confirm that everything has gone just as it should.”

The Gofore team is also delighted by the project’s success. Kytölä mentions the buzz provided by the huge social importance of the project.

“Every project and customer is important to us, but this project was special. We thought it was fantastic to help protect the Baltic Sea.”

Salminen shares the same positive vibe.

“It was great to work with the Gofore people. They threw themselves into the work and were agile, fast, and highly skilled. It was clear that succeeding was important to everyone.”

Now, during the second phase of the work, tools are being created for the processing and reporting of applications after Midsummer. Gypsum will be spread on the fields right after the harvest.