Our FIE aims to offer beekeepers a monitoring solution for hive and bee-family health conditions. Monitoring is performed during active season (summer) to predict and control family swarming as well as during the winter period to predict and monitor surviving families.  

Temperature sensors are located inside the hive, providing comprehensive temperature control in different places in the volume of the hive. Using NB-IoT connection, they send data to the server which accumulates it. We provide basic registry for beekeepers on their resources and activities. Hopefully, in the future we will also be able to identify potential risks for the hive. The system collects sensor observations in hives. In parallel beekeepers perform daily maintenance tasks and register them in the system. As an extra task, beekeepers make additional notes – such as observations of family conditions for example.  The data and observations are the basis for analysis and potential prediction system training which looks for regularities. 

In practice, the situations we address depend on the available technical units installed in hives - sensors and data as well as the measured phenomena. Developing systems based on measured data and configuration can inform and alert the user about any identified border value reached. For example, if we have installed weight, noise, temperature and humidity sensors we can monitor health conditions of the family during winter, based on noise and temperature. Upon reaching risk minimums we can alert beekeepers or identify the family as dead. We can also determine the hive weight and weight dynamics, that can help beekeepers to better plan logistics and maintenance tasks in apiary as well to identify cases of honey robbery in the context other bee families, wasps or other insects and post-factum swarming. Our hive control ITC solution helps to manage beekeepers’ resources with the specificity of matching sensor observation data with expert observations.

Our Regional Cluster (RC) acts as a first contact point and link between farmers and technology providers in the North-East Europe (NEE) region. The DIH's goal is to bridge the gap between the needs, challenges, interests and expectations of actors in the agri-food sector and help in dissemination. Our most interesting and valuable days are those spent with beekeepers, when we review collected sensor data, make activity registrations and register observed events in the family. There is always a wish to catch patterns and regularities in the collected data series looking at the same family data and comparing it with other data.  

Pest has usually an explosive evolution, and treating just before the “explosion” help to controlling it in a sustainable way. Soilborne Phytophthora cinnamomi is one of the world’s worst pathogen affecting several species from the native flora as, for instance, cork oak trees in Portugal. We investigate the use of hyperspectral sensing to identify trees with high probability of being infected with this pathogen. The validation of the procedure is being done on the ground by means of laboratory analysis of detection and genetic characterization of the isolates. We model the pest evolution and define when to treat, having achieved over 85% accuracy. We address the loss of trees and the impact of cork production. Our solution helps decreasing the costs associated with surveying the pathogen and the laboratory analysis. We also increase efficiency of field detection by means of portable instruments. Our solution will be a bonus for the pest management in natural ecosystems. It will be a service provided through a web platform and usable easily by the farmer. We will develop an algorithm that might be used by the official inspection services, private producers or landowners.

All days are very different from each other, as several items are under intensive analysis:  detection and identification by conventional morphological techniques - either on field or in the laboratory -, molecular characterization, development of new quick methods for portable devices, survey close to the end users on how they perceive the use of the technology… We are currently checking the models in a surface of over 400,000 Ha. Every week, we receive the pest scouting and provide, via a web platform, the pest evolution predictions up to 4 weeks in advance. Thanks to the DIH in our network, our FIE is able to showcase our tool both to authorities and farmers as a usable technology that combines efficiency and sustainability. 

Precision farming has an economic and ecological potential for farmers, especially for fertilizers management and pest management. However, the potential of these technologies remains largely unused. An important factor is the high costs of technical equipment, which is hardly, if at all, profitable for many small-scale farms across Europe. Furthermore, software systems and user interfaces for precision farming are often complex and overstrain non-expert users. Our main goal is to propagate site-specific management methods in agricultural practice, with a focus on small-scale and heterogeneous farms. This includes the adaptation of precision farming models and their presentation in a simple and reasonable manner for non-expert users. We help those farmers who struggle with unintuitive IoT solutions for map creations.  

With our solution, the farmer can create a fertilizer map on the tractor with his smartphone and starts fertilizing right away. He can also change the amount of fertilizer, as shown in the app, while driving on the field. In case high-tech equipment is available application maps can directly be used to control the machines. The product we put on the market is an application for smartphone or web which enables farmers to do site specific application of products such as fertilizer. On a typical day, we work on our models and apps for simple site-specific application. Once those applications are deemed ready, we test them directly on the field. The DIH we belong to helps us connect with farmers to discuss our solution and get a practical solution.  The Competence Center on the other hand takes active part in our FIE, they provide many competences in agronomy and precision farming.