31.05.2022 - The "AGRAVIS Future Farm" in Suderburg has been busy testing since 2018. The focus is on precision farming techniques and new methods that are intended to further develop agricultural work and, above all, make it easier.

The ideal environment for the newly launched research project "5G in agriculture", with which the district of Uelzen, together with the consortium partners, was able to successfully secure three-year implementation funding as part of the 5G innovation program of the Federal Ministry of Digital and Transport (BMDV).

The Institute for Sustainable Irrigation and Water Management in Rural Areas (INBW) of the Faculty of Construction, Water and Soil at Ostfalia University in Suderburg, AGRAVIS Raiffeisen AG, comcross GmbH, Lünecom Kommunikationslösungen GmbH and the start-up Vitrum GmbH are actively involved.

"With this concrete joint project and such ambitious partners at one table, we can make a real contribution to the conservation of resources, sustainability and services of general interest in the district of Uelzen and certainly beyond," said District Administrator Dr. Heiko Blume at the project meeting in Suderburg. "Fast and stable internet and a high-performance mobile network are the prerequisites that the district of Uelzen is working on to ensure that digitalization in agriculture picks up even more speed than it already has today," Blume continued.

The aim of this promising project is to test how irrigation can be optimized in terms of irrigation quantity and timing through the use of 5G technology and various sensors on agricultural test areas. The frequent summer droughts and irregular precipitation that have occurred in recent years have led to an increasing demand for water in agriculture.

"Experts have agreed for many years that agriculture in particular will have to learn to optimize irrigation in the future," says Prof. Dr.-Ing. Klaus Röttcher from INBW in Suderburg.

The first step is to erect a 5G-capable mobile phone mast in Suderburg.

"By using a wide variety of sensors and data sources and utilizing the 5G mobile communications standard, we want to test on our test field how we can irrigate agricultural crops more efficiently and conserve resources thanks to digital helpers," says Hinrich Brase from the AGRAVIS Future Farm.

The first digital helpers are already in use on the farm in Suderburg. Following the project meeting, all participants visited the self-propelled Farmdroid FD20 sowing and hoeing robot, which is currently working in the field on a sugar beet field.

The new project is part of the digitization strategy that the district has set up to proactively shape the digital future in the region. The contact person at the district is Thies-Benedict Lüdtke, Digital District Coordinator (t.luedtke@landkreis-uelzen.de; 0581 82-849).

In addition to the Uelzen project, there are other agricultural 5G projects throughout Lower Saxony that are addressing the topics of precision farming and smart farming in various areas as part of the 5G innovation competition organized by the Federal Ministry of Digital and Transport.