Smart farming
Agriculture has undergone continous developments in recent years due to the increasing demand for more environmentally friendly and efficient farming methods. One of these developments is smart farming, i.e. the use of digital technologies in agriculture. It includes the automation of work processes (e.g. by robots, drones), machine learning, sensor technology and the networking of devices and vehicles. As a result, smart farming will fundamentaly change agriculture and it is already increasing the need to adapt regulatory processes for the authorisation of agrochemicals.
Our current projects are
- Drone-based data recording from bird’s eye perspective
- Improved monitoring and observation studies of farmland species
- Publication: Precision farming and current EU pesticide regulation – how does it fit together?
- Publication: Precision application and soil organisms – a pilot study (currently in process)
- RIFCON Meeting at SETAC Europe (Copenhagen, 2022): Precision farming and terrestrial ecotoxicology – an open debate
- Presentation at Fresenius ECOTOX Conference (Düsseldorf, 2022): Precision farming and environmental pesticide regulation in the EU
- Presentation at CropLife Europe Conference (Brussels, 2023): Precision agriculture means precision risk assessment
- Chairing Session at SETAC Europe (Dublin, 2023): Precision Application – A Way to Reduce Environmental Risk?
- Presentation at SETAC Europe (Dublin, 2023): Precision application and soil organisms – matter of scatter or just chatter?
- Poster at SETAC Europe (Dublin, 2023): Spatially explicit population models support impact assessment of precision application – a common vole example
- … and we move on. For more info please contact Michael Faupel.
Smart farming in the regulatory process
With its Farm to Fork Strategy as part of the Green Deal, the European Commission aims a 50% reduction of pesticide use by 2030. Presicion farming can be a breakthrough to achieving this challenging goal. Current technologies allow to apply pesticides exclusively to a given target organism and not necessarily being applied to the total field area, preventive or due to usual handling without compromising the efficacy or risk crop yield and quality. At RIFCON, we consider smart farming options in the risk assessment as reduced exposure towards organisms in the agricultural landscape or amount applied to the environment, and we develop strategies to address smart farming in the registration process in correspondence with the involved stakeholders.
Smart farming technology in field studies
Smart farming means to go new ways and to rethink the known. RIFCON is working on integrating smart technology into existing study concepts and developing new study designs. We are commonly using drone-based remote sensing in field studies for exposure measures from a bird’s eye view, behavioral studies, data collection (e.g. ground coverage of crops to get suitable deposition data for any crop and growth stage), monitor animal movements or, in combination with thermal image cameras, to detect e.g. animals or nest sites in farmland.
The smart farming earthworm study
In this research project we are investigating how precise application patterns affect a natural earthworm community. Specifically, we are studying these patterns, each with 50% treated and 50% untreated area, in terms of chronic effects as well as recovery capacity (see video). Our hypothesis is that the more small-scale the pesticide is applied to the field, the lower the direct effect on the corresponding earthworm community and the higher its recovery capacity. The results of the study will help provide a baseline data set for future risk assessments of precision-applied pesticides.
