Digitalisation Enables Targeted Fertilising

To ensure a high-quality harvest while protecting the environment, we aim to better adapt fertiliser quantities to the needs of the plants, thereby avoiding a nitrogen surplus. The video shows how Agroscope experts are using Smart Farming methods to test how the different areas of a field could be fertilised differently, according to need.
Although commercial sensor-supported crop-fertilisation systems such as tractor-, drone- and satellite-based applications are already available today, such systems require further development. In addition, more experience is needed for their efficient use in practice, if we want them to gain wider acceptance. Agroscope is therefore conducting experiments in this field. The use of drones, as illustrated in the video, is a possible means to this end. In future, satellite-based systems could take over the bulk of the work, supported where necessary by drones and/or tractor-based systems.