Prof. Dimitrios Moshou is a full Professor at AUTH and Head of the Laboratory of Agricultural Engineering. He has a PhD from K.U. Leuven, Belgium, an MSc in Control Systems and an MSc in Electrical Engineering. His research interests include the theory and applications of AI and Deep Learning and their synergy/explanation with bio-inspired information processing, neuroscience, self-organisation. He is interested in applications of A and Deep Learning in Precision Agriculture, intelligent control, pattern recognition, data fusion, food safety, traceability, and cognitive robotics. Application areas include crop andfood monitoring, mechatronics and non-destructive quality control and monitoring of bio-products and crops. He is co-author of the research monograph book “Intelligent Data Mining and Fusion Systems in Agriculture”. He is the author of more than 250 papers in peer-reviewed journals, book chapters and reviewed international conference proceedings (resulting in 4400+ citations, h-index=33). He has been involved in the management and research part of several EU projects involving smart optical sensors, data fusion and AI. He is the coordinator of two running Horizon2020 projects: STARGATE 818187 and SIEUSOIL 818346.
Prof. Raj Khosla of Kansas State University is a globally recognized authority and a pioneer of Precision Agriculture. He has been engaged in precision agriculture since inception and has made significant contributions in the development and spread of Precision Agriculture worldwide. He is the Founder and Past-President of the International Society of Precision Agriculture. Most recently, he served as the member of National Academy of Science Executive Committee on Science Breakthrough 2030. In 2017, his research was recognized with the “Werner L. Nelson Award for Diagnosis of Yield-Limiting Factors Award” by the American Society of Agronomy. Previously, he has been recognized as the “Precision Ag Educator of the Year 2015” by the US agricultural industry. In 2012, Dr. Khosla was named the Jefferson Science Fellow by the National Academy of Sciences and was appointed as the Senior Science Advisor on Food Security to the U.S. Department of State. In 2011, he was inducted by NASA to the US “Presidential Advisory Board on Positioning, Navigation and Timing” to work on the US space-based GPS policy.
Prof. Khosla is the Fellow of American Society of Agronomy; Fellow of Soil Science Society of America; Fellow of Soil and Water Conservation Society and Honorary Life Fellow of International Society of Precision Agriculture.
Dr. Khosla’s research specializes in harnessing spatial and temporal heterogeneity in managed agro-ecosystems and translating those into better decision models. His group has extensively used remote sensing and other geo-spatial tools to enhance production, resource use efficiency, profitability, and sustainability of managed agro-ecosystems. Their on-going precision nitrogen management work has demonstrated significant reductions in nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions on farm fields. Most recently, his laboratory in collaboration with two other institutions are developing the next generation of soil-moisture and soil-nitrate sensors that are in-expensive, passive (battery-less), small, and bio-degradable. He has co-authored over 100 publications (book chapters, refereed journal articles, extension articles, proceedings, bulletins, reports, popular press articles, digital media, and others). He has been invited globally to over 30 countries.
Bruno TISSEYRE is professor in precision agriculture at the Institut Agro – Montpellier SupAgro (National Institute for Higher Education in Agriculture and Natural Resources). He leads the master degree AgroTIC and is associated with the Decision and Modelisation research group in the Information Technologies for the Agriculture of Tomorrow Research Unit (UMR ITAP) His initial background is agriculture engineering. He has been working on precision viticulture (PV) since 1996. He initiated and led various research projects in the field of PV, both at European level and national level, with academic partners as well as with private companies. These projects focused on research questions related to the development of methods: i) for spatial data fusion, ii) to characterize the spatial variability and to assess the ability to manage the within field variability (Opportunity index of Site specific management), iii) for spatial extrapolation (mainly applied to the vine water status). In remote sensing, the research led to the release of a remote sensing commercial service specifically dedicated to viticulture (Oenoview) in collaboration with ICV (Institut cooperative du vin) and Astrium. He now leads the AgroTIC Consortium which gathers 27 companies on digital agriculture and the digital Mediterranean farm (Mas numérique), a living laboratory on applied digital viticulture which gathers 15 companies on a same vineyard estate.
James TAYLOR is a Research Director with INRAE located in the Information Technologies for the Agriculture of Tomorrow Research Unit (UMR ITAP) in Montpellier. He leads the Decision and Modelisation group, which focuses on precision and digital agriculture applications in viticulture and other crops. He has worked in the field of Precision Agriculture since 1997 and started the first PhD in the area of Precision Viticulture in 1999 using prototype yield monitors in Australia. Dr Taylor’s background is in agronomy, soil science and spatial statistics and he researches the application of new and emerging sensors and data structures in agricultural production systems. He has held several post-doctoral and research fellowships that were strongly linked to industry and translational activities in Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Asia and North America, for both arable and perennial horticultural systems. He has on-going collaborations in the area of Precision Agriculture with researchers in the USA, Greece and China.
Bruno and James have had a long history of collaborative research in Precision Viticulture. This started with a sabbatical by Bruno in the same lab as James at The University of Sydney in 2003, included a 2-year post-doctoral position by James in Bruno’s lab 2008, and most recently in 2018 has seen James return to France to work permanently within the same research unit as Bruno. Collectively they have been heavily involved in global PV, from Europe to Australia and to both North and South America over the past 20 years. They will use this experience to trace where we came from and to consider where we are going with Precision Viticulture.
Professor Simon Pearson is the Director of the Lincoln Institute for Agri-Food Technology, University of Lincoln. Simon has become a leader in inter-disciplinary research in the field of agri-technology by bringing together academic and industrial experts who are striving to improve technological, environmental and human capital aspects of the food industry. This research embraces a diverse range of agri-technology applications including robotic systems, automation and design for manufacture of integrated e-hubs for agricultural vehicles. Simon is seeking to develop agri-robotics to drive productivity across the agri-food sector, including crop harvesting, phenotyping and crop care. Through the UKRI-EPSRC funded project, The Internet of Food Things. Simon brings together a network of experts to investigate how artificial intelligence, data analytics and emerging technologies can enhance the digitalisation of the UK food supply chain.
Prof. Dr. Csaba Gyuricza
Rector, Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Jacob van den Borne (1981), owner of Van den Borne Potatoes, is an arable farmer in the south off The Netherlands. In 2004 he received his bachelors degree in arable farming and soon after he got involved in national precision farming research and development. Today he is a forerunner in the use of precision farming technology with a strong belief this way the next generation farmers can really start to understand location specific growing processes and minimize environmental impact.
The company was founded in 1952 by Jan van den Borne. Over the last 45 years the business has expanded rapidly and now grows 550 hectares of potatoes, 50 hectares of sugar beet and 300 hectares of maize.
Jacob makes his company data available through his website VanDenBorneAardappelen.com, flies drones over his fields, uses satellite data and is researching, analyzing and visualizing soil scans and yield data.
After more than 10 years experimenting and applying precision farming at scale Jacob co-founded on his property the Practice Centre for Precision Agriculture, an official Smart Industry Fieldlab, with the goal to help suppliers and colleague farmers discover benefits in using technology and data to better understand nature and get more sustainable yields.
@jacobvdborne
http://www.vandenborneaardappelen.com
Precision Agriculture 14 phases Cycle Van Den Borne
We devide the farming year in a cycle off 16 phases, the precision agriculture cycle. Each phase has different precision agriculture equipment to collect and use data. We use all types off sensors on our machinery, soilscanners, specific spraying high tech and we use drones for monitoring the growth. In our digital farm combined with public data we can gather about 40 data points per (plant)location.
The main reason behind the investment is to come closer to the field yield potential in quantity and quality. With the same amount off arable land to achieve a higher yield with the same personnel, equipment and fertilizer/crop protection applications. Each time we drive over our fields we collect data to analyze and steer our equipment in order to use the least amount off resources in fertilizer and crop protection.
The first step in precision farming is investing in precision technology. The return on investment lies in cost saving optimization and automation off farm processes.
At the same time while you collect the data anyway you can start understanding the data and understand the soil and the processes better. Once you combine your farmers wisdom with the visualized data, you can start making ‚evidence based’ decisions and reach higher yields with the same assets. Third, in the eye off making farming more sustainable for mother nature, precision farming is the base to farm within the boundaries off mother nature, to farm on big scale zone and plant level doing the right thing at the right time at the right place.