Why spend time listening to weather forecasts, looking things up in pesticide manuals, calculating dosages, analysing field maps, adjusting nozzles, filling out forms and speculating about rules, instructions and cross compliance when you can avoid all that?

Does this sound like some kind of future farmer heaven? The future is actually not that far off when it comes to using modern technology for automatic control of fieldwork – and now the individual farmer can even have his say in further developments.

The EU project FutureFarm is all about developing the use of information technology in the field. This includes designing and developing prototypes for an advanced, wireless information system for farmers where there is online communication to the office and the machines in the field (manually controlled or robots) through the whole growing process from ploughing and harrowing to sowing, spraying and harvesting. The information system also ensures access to the advisory service, meteorological service, authorities, etc. and to information from them. The farmer will have the right information at his disposal at the right time and in the right place so that traceability and documentation of, for example, cross compliance can easily be ensured.

One of the Danish participants in the project is senior scientist Claus Aage Grøn Sørensen from the Department of Agricultural Engineering at the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences (DJF), University of Aarhus. He is working on the part of the process that is concerned with designing the information system. To start with, he is looking at the spraying and fertilisation processes.

- We want to construct an information system that helps farmers optimise their field operations and fulfils all documentation requirements in a simple and quick way. The aim of it all, with spraying and fertilisation as examples, is to minimise the use of pesticides and reduce the inputs of pesticides and nutrients to sensitive areas. The biggest advantage of the system is that the right information can be found online at the right time, says Claus Aage Grøn Sørensen.

Ongoing control in the field

Normally, the farmer sits at home in his office and plans when to spray, what to spray with, how much to use of each pesticide and which fields need to be treated. He then goes out to the machine and adjusts the nozzles and the dosage manually.

With the new system the IT tools take care of most of this work process. The computer in the office has access to data on the weather, the crops in the field, weeds, pests and diseases. The data are updated and transferred via a wireless connection to the computer in the tractor.

While the farmer drives the tractor in the field , the tractor’s computer receives a continuous stream of wireless information about the spraying, data about the local weather and information about where the tractor is via GPS. The data regarding the tractor’s actions in the field are transferred via a wireless connection back to the office computer.

With its ”brain” filled with the relevant information, the tractor and its implements can find out - on their own - where to drive, when to open and shut nozzles and how large a dose of pesticide to use.

Online update

The system can also suggest to the farmer that he change his tactics. If, for example, the computer receives the message that windy weather is on its way, then the farmer can decide to switch to another field with more shelter and continue to work there – and that action is automatically registered in the computer.

The system could even be expanded to incorporate local community information. For example, weddings and confirmations could be registered and the farmer could use the information to plan his slurry spreading.

Information about the fields and what the farmer is doing on them is constantly updated and online. The farmer’s advisors can be given access to the information and the data can also provide documentation for the authorities.

- The system is expected to be efficient, user-friendly and adapted to the needs of the individual farmer. Prototypes of the system will be tested under practical conditions on four large farms in Denmark, Germany, the Czech Republic and Greece, says Claus Aage Grøn Sørensen.

As a prelude to the EU project, there is a Nordic collaborative project involving DJF on the design and demonstration of user-based information technology for agriculture. In this project, farmers and other interested parties now have the possibility of making the system even more user-friendly and adapted to their own needs. The project’s website has a video that shows how a system for spraying works. On the basis of the video a questionnaire can be filled out, which in turn can help to clarify the needs, wishes and comments that farmers, advisors, contractors, and other interested parties might have regarding the system.

The presentation video and the questionnaire regarding the system can be found at www.mtt.fi/infoxt .

Read more about the EU-project at: www.futurefarm.eu

For further information please contact: Senior scientist Claus Aage Grøn Sørensen, Department of Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, University of Aarhus, telephone: +45 8999 3023, e-mail: Claus.Soerensen@agrsci.dk

Text: Janne Hansen