May 2, 2024

4/2024 - Project explanation and research updates of the AgriSens - DEMMIN 4.0 project

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AgriSens - DEMMIN 4.0 is one of the 14 digital experimental fields that are funded by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture in which innovations for digitalisation in agriculture are developed. In the experimental field eight research institutions are working together under the leadership of the GFZ Potsdam to develop digital solutions to practical questions about crop production using remote sensing technologies. One of these questions is: How can ecologically and economically sustainable cultivation be achieved on areas of acreages with soil and relief characteristics that are unfavourable under certain weather conditions?

To answer this question, the DLR Institute of Data Science develops the mobile application FieldMApp together with the Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the Hanse Agro as a practical partner. With this application, previously missing data can be recorded, visualised together with spatial data from other sources and deployed to support decision-making. These functionalities are integrated in our solution approach:

  1. The data collection function of the FieldMApp is deployed by farmers during field cultivation to record the location and causes of potential areas of low yield. The recorded causes are soil or relief properties that have a negative effect on the development or vitality of the crops under certain weather conditions. The map layer "potential low yield areas" is automatically derived from the recorded data.
  2. The visualization of the map layer "potential low yield areas" in combination with satellite-aided vitality deficit layers is enabled in the FieldMApp geoinformation system (GIS). The vitality deficit layers provide extensive field crop-specific information on the current vitality state of crops in comparison to the long-term regional average. Corresponding layers are provided by the project partners at the German Remote Sensing Data Centre of the @DLR.
  3. The decision-making of farmers or their consultants during the planning of field management can be supported by these data: In a year with unfavourable weather, which means that crops will not develop well or not at all on certain soils regardless of fertilisation, the FieldMApp helps to identify this at an early stage. As a consequence, the amount of fertiliser can be reduced on the developing low yield areas. This saves farmers money and protects the soil from over-fertilisation.

The current status of AgriSens - DEMMIN 4.0:

Further information about the AgriSens - DEMMIN 4.0 project can be found on the project homepage https://www.agrisens-demmin.de/.