Test platforms for digital agricultural production

The participants spoke of a radical change that will affect agribusiness as a whole. Practical projects such as the creation of digital pilot farms, and the establishment of a unified nationwide geodatabase are among the first objectives of the “Digitisation in agriculture” dialogue platform initiated jointly with the German Federal Ministry of Agriculture. “Digital pilot farms, as test platforms for the operational and inter-operational networking of production processes, are to ensure the practicality of the future vision of Agriculture 4.0,” said VDMA Managing Director Dr. Bernd Scherer.

“Digitisation in the agricultural sector offers enormous potential: It enables agriculture to conserve limited resources such as water and soil and to handle them more efficiently. At the same time, digital solutions can assist in the application of fertiliser and plant protection products in an even more targeted, need-based manner, thus making food production more sustainable and transparent – we must take advantage of this opportunity. Based on the dynamics and rapid development of information technology, we must take action to establish expertise and resources. Only in this way can German agriculture compete internationally – which also serves to benefit consumers. Germany is one of the leading countries worldwide in the production and use of modern agricultural machinery. I would like us to maintain this leading position in the future,” said Federal Minister Schmidt.

“The digitisation of agriculture cannot be taken for granted. We require a concept that will integrate all participants in rural areas and beyond,” added Dr. Scherer.

VDMA therefore “expressly welcomes the fact that the German Federal Ministry of Agriculture has taken the lead in this important question, so that we can make progress together.”

Functioning interfaces are already established

However, the industry is not treading entirely new ground, since functioning digital interfaces are a long-standing part of agricultural production practice. GPS-controlled tractors and harvesting machinery, high-precision application procedures for farm inputs, and software solutions for the minute-by-minute coordination of crop transport logistics have long been a feature of the modern agricultural scene.

“However, what we will see in future will be a considerable step forward,” said Dr. Hermann Buitkamp, digitisation expert of the VDMA Agricultural Machinery Association. Agriculture 4.0 represents “a transformation” to ensure that the entire process chain is combined with intelligent information technology, so as to achieve a new level of added value.

“5G must be established, as quickly as possible”

“In summary, it is a matter of thorough internal and external networking of all mobile machinery as well as numerous stationary machines on the farm,” explained Dr. Buitkamp. This is an extremely challenging goal that requires appropriate framework conditions; however, these are still lacking in many respects. In particular, rural areas continue to be poorly provided with high-speed Internet and a proper network infrastructure that ensures stable data connections. This is currently a point of special concern for the European agricultural machinery industry, which is regarded as an essential source of inspiration and ideas for industry-wide digitisation. “To ensure a bright future for Agriculture 4.0, we must first facilitate connectivity for rural areas, so that they are able to act. Specifically, this means that the 5G mobile communications standard must be established, as quickly as possible,” stated Dr. Scherer. However, this major endeavour can be “accomplished only in close cooperation with political decision-makers”.

Open Data Directive must be implemented promptly

In the view of VDMA, this also applies to the use of public land registry, satellite and weather data, which are systematically collected and evaluated by the responsible federal and state offices. “Here there is great potential. We urgently require considerably simplified electronic data access,” said Dr. Scherer. The announced Open Data Directive of the European Union must be implemented promptly, and also need to meet the highest standards with regard to IT security.

The same applies to the necessary compatibility and connectivity of farm management systems, networked machinery, robots and sensors. Although much is already possible, “genuine plug and play” requires a further intensification of knowledge exchange, “so that each process element can be considered across manufacturers.”

Additional information can be found on the Internet:

• VDMA position paper “Inter-Operational Data Management”
• VDMA position paper “Agriculture 4.0”
• VDMA presentation on digitisation in agriculture „Digitalisierung in der Landtechnik“, given by Dr. Hermann Buitkamp in June 2017, within the framework of the German federal government Digital Summit (beginning at 34:20)