The aim of this 3 year project is to develop the potential for using crop sensing to more precisely target input applications such as fertilizer, plant growth regulation and crop protection, and then to structure this knowledge as a support tool to allow advisors and growers to confidently use this technology to improve efficiency, sustainability and competitiveness on commercial farms.

One of the critical challenges for the successful and widespread adoption of Precision Farming in Europe is to mainstream the use of the technologies to ensure it is accessible to all farmers and can become an integral part of crop management supported by crop advisors / agronomists where decisions are based on cost-benefit analysis. To achieve this, appropriate research-based validation and comprehensive support to advisors and farmers, is essential to facilitate the adoption of crop-sensor based management. This project will deliver the necessary research, validation and support.

The activities include a desk study on best practices; development/validation of sensor technology for different climatic regions; implementation of sensor technology on demonstration farms; development of more robust validation from field trials and through monitoring effects in fields at the demonstration farms; development of a sensor-implementation tool for farm advisors; an adoption analysis with different farming systems and geographical areas; and finally an exploitation analysis. The project is expected to increase the TRL (Technology Readiness Level) from approximately 3-4 at the start to 5-8 at the end of the project.

The consortium comprises of Danish, Finnish, Swedish and Irish partners from research institutes, universities, private enterprises and the advisory systems.