New technologies are seen as a solution for the development of sustainable, environmentally friendly agriculture. However, very few Walloon farmers use them. The aim of the project is to integrate Smart Farming into a conventional and organic field crop farm. The project's originality lies in its entirely participative nature, as it is implemented on an entire farm to assess the social and organisational aspects crucial to a successful technological transition, such as perceived obstacles, levers, working hours and apprehension in the face of new technologies.
Technology integration
The project began with an overview of the technological solutions available to Walloon farmers and a detailed analysis of the farm involved in the project. This led to the definition of two priorities: optimising soil organic carbon management and optimising irrigation water management. Other avenues are also being explored, such as soil fertility optimisation and disease monitoring. In the next stage of the project, Smart Farming was deployed on the farm using soil mapping (carbon, texture, pH, potassium, etc.), soil moisture monitoring using weather data, tensiometric and capacitive probes, satellite images and radar measurements by drone. Other solutions included ADO fungal disease warnings, data management portals, dose modulation tools, biomass production monitoring systems using imagery, and yield mapping.
What can we expect from the project?
The objective is to carry out technical, economic, environmental and organisational assessments of the different integrated solutions and present them to all Walloon farmers to help their transition. Several tools will be made available to them for this: the latest developments in available solutions, a detailed description of the solutions implemented by the project, a guide to a successful transition and, lastly, a report outlining the obstacles and difficulties involved.
Financing: Walloon Recovery Plan (PRW)
