[Rostock] The Fraunhofer IGD supports the development of sustainable agriculture with the tools of visual computing and artificial intelligence. Interdisciplinary teams focus on land management, animal husbandry, and peatland monitoring. The site manager of Fraunhofer IGD, Prof. Uwe Freiherr von Lukas, welcomed the guests and emphasized the central role of digital technologies for the future of agriculture. Following that, Dr. Philipp Wree, head of the Bioeconomy department at Fraunhofer IGD, led a gallery walk that offered practical insights into the development of smart farming technologies. Various cooperation partners from the bioeconomy projects also participated in the presentation.

"Modern technologies are also being used in agriculture today. The so-called Smart Farming is an important research area for the future, and MV is focusing on it. We bring the best conditions for this in Rostock and Greifswald: at these attractive study locations, rural areas meet good university education and top-notch research. Here, we have the research objects and at the same time the future beneficiaries of our research right on site: the farmers with their agricultural enterprises," said Science Minister Bettina Martin in her greeting.

Through a grassland research project, it was demonstrated how a digitized and automated recognition of plant species and the analysis of biomass growth can facilitate both grassland management and funding opportunities for ecological measures. In doing so, Fraunhofer IGD combines the advantages of drones and visual computing to conduct vegetation analysis and species detection from the air.

In the "VALPEATS" project, part of the peatland focus area, monitoring tools based on artificial intelligence are being developed to report on relevant changes in the observed ecosystems in a resource-conserving, transparent, and traceable way.

Additionally, it was presented how advanced computer vision methods are being applied to develop practical solutions for the many challenges in agricultural animal husbandry. The project on the early detection of lameness in cows demonstrated how symptoms such as a curved back and altered lying behavior can be detected using cameras and computer vision.

Dr. Philipp Wree emphasized the importance of these developments: "At Fraunhofer IGD, we focus on applied research, always aligned with the specific needs of those who will later work with our developments and make decisions."

The visit underscores the growing importance of digitalization in agriculture. The technologies developed at Fraunhofer in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern make a significant contribution to the sustainable transformation of the agricultural sector and strengthen the competitiveness of the industry.