Funding by: Bundesministerium für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft (BMEL)
Funding ID: 28DE114A18
project executing/management agency: Bundesanstalt für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft
coordinated by: GFZ Potsdam
Funding period: 03.2020 - 02.2023
project partners:  Deutsches Zentrum für Luft und Raumfahrt (DLR) der Standort Neustrelitz, Oberpfaffenhofen und Jena I Forschungszentrum für landwirtschaftliche Fernerkundung des Julius Kühn-Instituts (FLF-JKI) aus Braunschweig I Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD) I Hochschule Neubrandenburg (HS-NB) I Martin-Luther Universität Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) I Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena (FSU) I Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU)

Digitization in Agriculture

Agricultural enterprises can increase their prospective productivity while protecting the environment and increasing biodiversity by using geodata, in particular data from remote sensing sensors on satellites, aircraft and UAV. In order to test the corresponding technologies, AgriSens DEMMIN 4.0 (remote sensing technologies for digitization in crop production), a regional, digital experimental field is being launched in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, near the city of Demmin, about 220 kilometres north of Berlin. In addition to the core area in the Demmin area, the experimental field also includes other test locations in Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt. AgriSense DEMMIN 4.0 narrows the focus on precise definition of and solution for applications for remotely sensed data detected by satellite- and UAV-supported systems for specific crop cultures, e.g. estimating crop yields, detection of zones with lower yields or calculating irrigation requirements. We analyse the current state of the art in the use of geoinformation data in agriculture and conceive and implement application examples based in the latest scientific findings. The project aims at providing data sets to farmers, of which they can obtain the information they need for their work. This information serves as a basis for decisions on measures such as fertilization, sowing or soil cultivation. For many farmers the recent hurdle to reduce these data to practice is far too high, unfortunately. Especially the data access, a wide range of software solutions and complex market offerings are challenging. Here we would like to offer low-threshold solutions and geodata know-how to farmers.

The GFZ Potsdam is leading the AP 2 of the Data Innovation Pool in the project. It focusses on the fusion of satellite data from different sensors for agricultural questions. Together with the MLU Halle-Wittenberg we are working on the application case for the optimization of sub-area specific irrigation control by remote sensing data integration.

Dr. Daniel Spengler, research associate at the GFZ, is the project coordinator for AgriSens DEMMIN 4.0 and also acts as speaker for the experimental field and representative of it in the BMEL “Competence Network Digitization in Agriculture”.