Digitalisation increases the impact of innovation
Within Innovation Package 1 Open Field Cultivation, digitalisation plays an important role in developing, testing and applying innovations. This is not only about data. Interoperability, technology, laws and regulations, human skills and cybersecurity also determine whether digital applications can become useful in practice.
By developing these themes in connection with each other and testing and validating innovations at practical locations, it becomes clearer what is needed to take solutions further. In this way, digitalisation connects research, technology development and day-to-day business operations within arable farming, fruit cultivation, field vegetable crops, livestock farming and the additional area of post-harvest processing.
One digital foundation connects steps across the chain
Digitalisation is not linked to one crop, company or innovation. Within open field cultivation, it connects different use cases, test locations and chain partners. Robotics, AI, data integration and precision technology are increasingly coming together.
Initiatives such as Tree2Plate show how digital applications and data from different links in the chain can be combined. By connecting systems and testing solutions under realistic conditions, research, technology and practice become more closely aligned. This helps the parties involved better understand what is needed for further application.
Data from across the chain helps each link move forward and strengthens the whole
More and more digital applications are being used in the Agrifood sector. Yet technology, work processes and systems do not always fit together well. Farm management systems, sensors, machines, robots and AI applications often work with their own data and their own methods.
An important challenge is therefore to align technology, data exchange and business processes more effectively. Interoperability and standardisation help combine data and make digital applications more widely usable. At the same time, clear roles, appropriate skills and attention to safety are needed. This allows digitalisation to better fit day-to-day practice and support decision-making.
Digital Maturity Scan
One tool for aligning technology, data exchange and business processes more effectively is the Digital Maturity Scan, developed by Wageningen Social & Economic Research. The scan looks at six dimensions.
Business processes
People and culture
Strategy
Digital governance
Technology
Data and analytics
The scan is being used in practice
More than ten organisations have now completed the scan. The results provide insight into strengths and areas for development. This creates a starting point for more targeted testing, improvement and collaboration. In this way, the scan helps organisations look at digital choices not only from a technical perspective, but also from an organisational one.
Testdata maakt duidelijk wat een innovatie in de praktijk kan betekenen
Digitalisation helps assess innovations beyond their technical performance. Economic, organisational and societal questions also become more important as technology moves closer to application. Within NXTGEN Hightech Agrifood, innovations are therefore tested and validated at practical locations.
In this testing and validation context, the economic feasibility of harvesting robots and other technologies is being examined, for example. The parties involved look at aspects such as payback time, costs per harvested product, labour savings and operational performance. By making this data visible within the relevant context, a clearer picture emerges of the potential value for entrepreneurs and technology developers.
User acceptance tests are also carried out. These examine how new technologies are experienced and applied in practice. This creates a more complete picture of technical performance, practical usability and the skills and changes needed for day-to-day use.
Digital applications gain value when they fit daily routines
For entrepreneurs, digitalisation can help them better understand and optimise processes and make more strongly supported choices. By connecting machines, sensors, software and data sources, new applications are emerging in precision agriculture, robotics and agronomy.
Within Tree2Plate, cultivation data, sensor data and quality data are combined to develop new insights. These insights support applications such as precision blossom thinning, precision spraying and accurate harvest measurements. Within this application, and depending on conditions and further validation, this can contribute to higher yields, more efficient use of resources and new ways to create value from data.
For technology companies, this also creates opportunities to align innovations more closely with practical conditions. It also helps make the added value of solutions visible within a concrete application context.
Clear agreements make data usable and responsibly shareable
Effective digitalisation requires clear agreements between the parties involved. This is not only about data sharing and ownership. Interoperability, security, responsibilities and the embedding of technology in work processes also play a role.
Within Open Field Cultivation, existing guidelines and standards for responsible digital and data use are followed. This includes working in line with the Data Use Code of Conduct for Arable Farming and applying AgroConnect standards wherever possible. Developments around ISO TC347 for data-driven Agrifood are also being followed.
Alongside technical agreements, societal aspects play an important role. The ELSA scan, which stands for Ethical, Legal & Societal Aspects, is used to assess innovative applications on ethical, legal and societal points of attention. This helps assess new technologies responsibly before they are applied more widely.
At the Open Field Cultivation locations, work is being done on dashboards that make data from existing systems visible and accessible. At the fruit cultivation location in Randwijk, data from different fruit cultivation systems is being brought together. At De Marke, data is used to make KPIs such as roughage intake, milk yield and nitrogen emissions visible.
These dashboards support researchers and visitors at the Open Field Cultivation locations in interpreting business processes. They show how digital systems can work together in practice. As a result, data is not only collected, but converted through integration and visualisation into knowledge that can contribute to innovation and improvement within the test locations.
Digitalisation accelerates learning within the Handsfree Agrifood ecosystem
Within the Handsfree Agrifood ecosystem, digitalisation is an important condition for taking innovation further. By connecting technology, knowledge, experiences and data, partners can learn from practical results and develop new applications in a more targeted way.
Wageningen Social & Economic Research supports this process with expertise in digital maturity, socioeconomic validation and digital innovation. In this way, solutions within NXTGEN Hightech Agrifood are not only developed, but also tested, improved and assessed for broader applicability in future-ready open field cultivation and post-harvest processing.
The person behind digitalisation in Open Field Cultivation
Joep Tummers, researcher at Wageningen Social & Economic Research, supports the development of data-driven innovations, digital maturity and socioeconomic validation within the Open Field Cultivation and post-harvest processing innovation package. He connects technology, practice and research to turn data into useful insights. In this way, he contributes to the development, assessment and further application of innovations within the Handsfree Agrifood ecosystem.
Getting in touch is easy
Would you like to know more about digitalisation or contribute to development within Open Field Cultivation? Contact us and discover how collaboration within the Handsfree Agrifood ecosystem can create opportunities for your company.