Smart Farming

In 2017, seven European universities of life sciences launched an Erasmus+ Key Action 02 joint project on Smart Farming (Precision Agriculture) and new technologies.

New : MOOC Smart-farming

A MOOC dedicated to Smart-farming is now open for free and for all
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Closing Symposium : watch the replay!

The October 20th of 2020, ISA Lille hosted the project’s final symposium. Watch the replay of the conference!
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European, Transnational Cooperation

This three-year program (2017-2020) focuses on cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices at the European level.
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What is Smart Farming?

Precision Agriculture (PA), is a way to “apply the right treatment at the right place at the right time” (Gebbers and Adamchuk, 2010).

Smart Farming can be seen as the use of sensing technology and digitalization in agriculture to atomize, guide and optimize management and agricultural activities for crops and livestock production through the wide analysis and capitalization of collected information and data.

Precision agriculture (PA) is an important aspect of smart farming and can be defined as a management strategy that gathers, processes and analyzes temporal, spatial and individual data and combines it with other information to support management decisions according to estimated variability for improved resource use efficiency, productivity, quality, profitability and sustainability of agricultural production.

In practice PA typically, but not necessarily, relies heavily on new technologies and digitalization. Especially positioning systems, sensor technologies, automation, robotics and digitized auxiliary data like elevation models, weather data, soil unit mapping and satellite data.

Objectives

This joint project aims to develop comprehensive educational programs and tools to address the current demand and anticipate the future needs of the agricultural industry in Europe.

Smart Farming, or Precision Agriculture, meets today’s need of reducing production cost (viability) and environmental impact: produce more in a more sustainable way, at a lesser cost, with an improved efficiency of input.

We are today at the crossroad of agricultural techniques and mechatronics technologies that have to be combined on the field and in the student’s training to ensure future professionals in the sector.
The main challenge
The main challenge for EU agriculture will be its ability to ensure a high level of production while improving the protection of natural resources
European Parliament’s study
P/B/AGRI/IC/2013_153

Decisions on pesticides, such as the directive 2009/128/EC or the last changes in the CAP Greening resolutions show the will of the European Community to change for a more environment-friendly agriculture, while keeping high levels of production. PA can answer these two issues by providing a way to reduce the use of agricultural inputs: a competitiveness gain (less inputs for the same production level) and an environmental gain (less fuel and crop protection agents).

Our program aims at answering these issues, through the following specific objectives by:

  • developing a high-quality European teaching network on the subject
  • establishing perennial European partnerships between higher education institutions, public contracting authorities and businesses for the improvement of European higher education that is more in tune with the labour market
  • training three very specific student cohorts over the program and by providing them new skills, in a transdisciplinary field: agronomy, robotics, data analysis, GIS, etc.
    participating in the training of many other students and professionals by making all of the courses completed during the program available via free public access (open on-line)
  • cultivating research partnerships between higher education institutions and the professional agricultural organizations for the marketing of innovative and sustainable technologies, in order to best accompany the sector’s development as well as their actors (farmers, agricultural organizations, etc.).

Partners

Partner Universities

This European Commission-funded Erasmus Plus project is the joint effort of 7 European Universities of Life Sciences: ISA Lille - Yncréa Hauts-de-France, UTAD Portugal, NMBU Norway, SLU Sweden, University of Helsinki Finland, University of Liège Gembloux Agro-BioTech Belgium, and Perrotis College Greece.
map ka2 smart farming partner universities

Business Partners

Our project closely involves business partners from various areas of the Smart Farming industry and local authorities. Thanks to this cooperation, we are able to help define the immediate future of the industry and better train students for the reality of the job market. The hands-on experience gained working directly with international leaders of the Smart Farming industry gives students who participate in our program a distinct advantage in the workforce.

Subject Areas

Our Smart Farming program is focused on using new technology in Crop Production. The purpose of this project is to raising students’ awareness of new technologies and teach them how to use them in order to meet industry need for these skills. Going from sensors to robotics by way of information processing, we aim to help students develop the transdisciplinary skills needed to work in Precision Agriculture.

Specialisations

In this project, we have tried to identify complementary expertise at each partner institution, to cover the different key points of PA. Each partner will therefore bring its very specific knowledge and experience in a specialization useful for this project: teledetection, GIS, robotics, mechatronics, plant science, etc. Each partner has been identified for its particular expertise and the added-value that he/she would bring to the project and its content:

  • UTAD Portugal is a specialist in GIS, Teledetection and e-learning. Their principal studies deal with southern crops (viticulture).

  • NMBU Norway focuses particularly on robotics and their application in crops.

  • SLU Sweden deals with sensors and image analysis, particularly on northern crop systems.

  • University of Helsinki, Finland, focuses on the automation, systems technology and modelling, applied to northern crop systems.

  • University of Liège – Gembloux Agrobiotech, Belgium will offer a broad range of skills with modelling and geo-statistics, mechatronics and remote sensing. They are specialists on Central Europe crop systems.

  • Perrotis College, Greece deals with remote sensing and computerized farm machinery applied to southern crops such as viticulture and olive trees.

  • ISA Lille – Yncréa Hauts-de-France has expertise in crop systems, robotics and GIS. It also has a solid experience in innovative teaching methods (co-design projects and active learning).

Content

The principle teaching modalities are:

  • E-learning (Refresher Course)
  • Group projects
  • Intensive program in Sweden including practicals and field visits
  • Internship in a partner company

Students will be evaluated through their project work.

The principle objectives and subject areas are:


Precision Agriculture
How can we utilize new technologies to optimize efficiency, sustainability, and viability in agriculture?

All partners

Sensor Technologies
What kind of sensors are used and will be used in the future in Precision Agriculture?

Leader: SLU Sweden; Members: Perrotis College, U. Helsinki Finland
Keywords: sensors (weather, image, sound, motion data acquisition), internet of things, sensors connection, wireless sensor networks

Data Analysis and Modeling
What can be done with data coming from these sensors?

Leader: Gembloux AgroBioTech; Members: ISA Lille – Yncréa HDF, Perrotis College
Keywords: data storage, data analysis, image processing, programming, data management, big data, statistics, modeling

Geomatics and Remote Sensing
How to analyze and interpret spatial data?

Leader: Perrotis College; Members: UTAD, SLU
Keywords: Geographical Information System (GIS), Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)

Automation and Mechanics
How to use collected and analyzed data as input for automated tools and machines?

Leader: University of Helsinki; Members: Gembloux AgroBioTech, NMBU

Robotics
What are the role of robots in agriculture?

Leader: NMBU; Members: ISA Lille – Yncréa HDF, UTAD
International Cooperation

RESULTS AND IMPACT

In a survey following our first intensive course in Skara, Sweden, 100% of student participants said the experience would impact their career and that they would recommend the experience to other students.