Funding by: Bundesministerium für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft (BMEL)

Funding ID: 2823ERA22H

Junding period: 24.04.2023 - 23.04.2026

Project partners:

• Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, CNR-IBBR,Italy
• Helmholtz Centre Potsdam – GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Germany
• University of Florence, UNIFI, Italy
• Munster Technological University, MTU, Ireland 

The objective of APP4FARM is the definition of an ICT infrastructure allowing the farmer to monitor nitrogen loss, allowing efficient management of nitrogen-based fertilisers. This will ensure control of farming costs and nitrogen oxide emissions in the atmosphere leading to the improvement of both GHG levels (N2O) and local air quality (nitrogen oxides, secondary inorganic aerosol, and ozone). The infrastructure will include a monitoring system allowing to trace all the meteorological data and nitrogen emission levels, driving a Decision Support System that will give the farmer all the measured data and the forecasts up to 3 days in advance. The presented solution will grant all the data needed to ensure to the consumer the full traceability of the production conditions and the transparency on the environmental impact, supporting the decision makers to define the “green tag” along the whole supply chain.

Main project activities

• Definition of Decision Support System (DSS) to support the optimal use of nitrogen-based fertilizers:
  • Development of the dashboarding system for the DSS
  • Development of Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence forecasting models
• Definition of the sensing system to monitor environment and soil health
• Design tailored sensors for N-related microbial activity in soil
• Definition of a virtual sensor linking environmental variables and N-related microbial diversity in soil