In a series, ET4D interviews experts of the project to give their insights on core developments within dairy farming. This is the fourth in the series. 

ET4D brings together experts and prominent partners from Europe and beyond with a goal to introduce cutting-edge smart technologies that help farmers monitor health and environmental conditions on their farms more precisely. 

Established in 2023, the EU-funded project is coordinated by the Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy in Germany, under the leadership of Dr. Sabrina Hempel. 

We spoke with Dr. Sabrina Hempel about the project's early impact and what it means for the future of the agriculture sector, both in Europe and worldwide. The interview is prepared by Innvite ApS (Denmark).

Q1: What are the key challenges ET4D aims to solve, and what makes them pressing in the current agricultural landscape?

The agri-food sector faces increasing complexity related to societal, economic and environmental demands. Digital technologies are a key to quantify and manage complexity, but a lack of transparency leads to a loss of trust among actors along the value chain. We foster transparency at the example of dairy farming by improving on-farm connectivity and providing tailored reports of husbandry conditions. 

Q2: What have been the key impacts or early successes of ET4D?

We identified indoor cellular communication coverage in dairy housing as key challenge for data transmission and the use of heterogeneous networks as potential solution. At the same time, we set up a web-based environment to visualize and compare sensor data from different farms. Survey studies in several countries provided initial insights into which information is most relevant to be shown in this application, where milk quality related parameter was among the top ranked. 

Q3: How will the ET4D project influence the future of the agriculture sector on a global scale?

We aim to design a web-based environment that can act as a decision support system and marketing platform for farmers, and as an information space for processors, retailers, or consumers. Thereby, we foster the interaction of different groups along the food value chain, permitting well-informed decision making of all actors to strengthen the resilience of the system as a whole. 

About Dr. Sabrina Hempel

Dr. Sabrina Hempel is the project coordinator of ET4D with a PhD from Humboldt University in Berlin. She is a prominent researcher at Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy that is based in Potsdam in Germany.

ET4D is funded by ICT-AGRI FOOD and by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Regional Identity @BMLEH based on a decision of the Parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany via the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food as the German national funding body.