Institute of

BW Farm Economics

New Technologies / Innovations

Precision Agriculture and Agritech concept. Precision agriculture network icons on rice field.

Production methods in agriculture have always been strongly influenced by technical progres. Today, digitization and automation are advancing rapidly in many sectors of the economy and will change production processes and thus the world of work in the future. The question arises to what extent agriculture and horticulture can benefit from these developments in order to use new technologies to solve challenges of today's production systems. For example, resistance issues in plant protection are increasing while less and less effective plant protection products are available. In addition, the current agricultural and horticultural production systems are subject to public criticism due to concern on environmental impacts and animal welfare.

Therefore, we analyse and evaluate to what extent new technologies in agriculture and horticulture help to overcome these challenges. For this purpose, we investigate the following questions:

How do new technologies affect production systems, farm management and the competitiveness of agricultural and horticultural enterprises?
What can policy-makers do to ensure that new technologies lead to positive environmental impacts and avoid negative consequences?
How can new technologies be used to monitor the environmental impacts of agriculture?

Our research currently focusses on the benefits of precision farming in arable and horticulture, e.g. to reduce the use of pesticides and fertilisers. In addition, we integrate satellite data into our nationwide analyses of land use and land use changes in the agricultural landscape. For this purpose, we use data from the EU's Copernicus program as well as commercial high-resolution satellite images. The satellite data provide an important data basis for our monitoring activities, reporting obligations, policy evaluation and impact assessments (for more information, see Thünen Remote Sensing).

For our analyses we cooperate with many different universities, colleges and other research institutions, e.g. with the TU Braunschweig, the ATB, the DLRRheinpfalz or the Julius Kühn-Institut.

Field robot in action in the field — Field robot

Ongoing Projects Finished Projects

Ongoing Projects

Earth observation and artificial intelligence for monitoring of organic farming

By 2030, the share of organic farming in Germany aims to be expanded to 30% of agricultural land. Satellite data can help to show cultivated areas and differences in management practices between organic and conventional farming.

HotSpots Erosion

Soil erosion by water is the major threat to agricultural soils in Europe and in the long term threatens yields and food security. The risk of soil erosion varies widely within Germany and depends not only on natural factors but also on the farming practices. For better soil protection, we want to identify erosion Hot Spots in Germany by predicting the soil erosion risk using models.

Housing and husbandry systems of the future

None of today's widespread systems in use are convincing in all parameters. There are major differences between the systems in terms of animal welfare, re-source efficiency, production costs and profitability. Digitalisation can help to improve existing processes or to develop completely new systems. The project "Stable and housing systems of the future" is an in-house project for the development of innovative, automated and sustainable stable systems in livestock farming.

InnoChick - Innovative housing systems for the free-range management of laying hens

InnoChick is an in-house project to develop an innovative, automated and sustainable housing system for free-range laying hens.

International competitiveness and further development of production systems in arable farming

Globally, arable production systems in developed countries face new, substantial production related and thus economic challenges. They are a consequence of changing legal, agronomic, and climate conditions as well as the lack of established adoption strategies. This requires the design and evaluation of agronomically and economically feasible new production systems.

Monitoring biological diversity in agricultural landscapes with remote sensing

A long-term monitoring of biological diversity at national level requires a representative data basis about the state and development of agricultural landscape. To achieve this, the project MonViFE develops spatially explicit indicators of landscape structure and land-use intensity.

Photovoltaic systems on agricultural land

In order to implement the energy transition, more electricity from renewable energies is needed. Photovoltaic systems on agricultural areas are becoming more and more important in this respect. In order to produce food and electricity on the same area, we are investigating new photovoltaic concepts.

Remote sensing for improved climate reporting (KlimaFern)

Land use and agricultural measures are essential domains for achieving climate protection targets. Satellite data will be used to monitor agricultural land use over a wide area and to improve the data basis for reporting.

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Finished Projects

Are new technologies for cauliflower and broccoli production going to prevail?

In research, future-oriented, technological approaches are being pursued to increase the security of horticultural production systems and products. We ask whether such technologies will actually be implemented into the horticultural production systems.

Autonomous agricultural machinery

Arable farming is losing more and more social acceptance. Problems are (a) increasing soil pressure because of heavy machines, (b) the use of plant protection as well as (c) environmental pollution resulting from nitrogen fertilization. At the same time, new developments in automation can help to reduce the mentioned problems in fully automated production systems. We analyze if autonomous agricultural machines enable more sustainable plant production systems.

Copernicus lights green

Land consumption and intensification of use exert high pressure on grassland areas. Recording and assessing the condition and distribution of protected grassland and grassland worthy of protection requires a great deal of effort. In the future, satellite data should support official monitoring with area-wide services.

Ecological and Socioeconomic Functions of Tropical Lowland Rainforest Transformation Systems

The transformation of tropical rainforest to rubber and oil palm plantations has extensive impact on nature and living conditions. Remote sensing helps us to understand the spatial-temporal patterns and drivers of those processes.

HortiCo 4.0

Digitalisation will have a major impact on horticultural production systems and horticultural value chains and will change the sector. Therefore, the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture has established the horticulture 4.0 funding priority in order to advance the development of digital solutions for the sector.

Monitoring of climate-impacting measures in crop and grassland management with satellite data

With 66.4 million tons of CO2 equivalents, agriculture was responsible for 9 % of greenhouse gas emissions in Germany in 2020. Adaptations in farm management can reduce these emissions. Area-wide data on such adaptation measures will be derived from high-resolution satellite data.

Networking and Transfer Project for Digitalization in Agriculture

The large number of research activities in the field of digitalization in agriculture initiated by the Federal Government within the last few years are evaluated in this project, involved researcher are networked with each other and the results are prepared, evaluated and published.

Possibilities for reducing the use of pesticides in arable farming

Common crop protection strategies in arable farming are increasingly losing their effect as resistance to grass, insects and fungi spreads in many intensive arable areas. This leads to rising costs and changes in production systems. At the same time, the benefits and dangers of plant protection are critically discussed in society. Alternatives to chemical crop protection such as mechanical weeding are already available but are usually associated with higher costs. Against this background, the project aims to find out how the use of pesticides can be reduced as efficiently as possible.

PPILOW

Organic and outdoor low-input pig and poultry farming systems have spread considerably in the EU during the last decade due to ethical and socio-economic considerations. Nevertheless, there are still several challenging questions unsolved concerning such systems, especially in relation to animal health and mortality problems. Consumers and practitioners of these production systems particularly disapprove of damage to animal integrity (i.e. beak trimming, piglet castration) and of the killing of one-day old male layer chicks. These practices question the ethics and the sustainability of these ...