Photonics teams up with Agriculture Farming 4.0 - Precision Farming through Photonics
The transition of the agro-industry to the so-called precision farming by applying photonic
technologies was a major topic of the end-user workshop “Light-Based Solutions for Agriculture,
Veterinary and Ecology” which was held at the campus of the Swedish University of Agricultural
Sciences (SLU) and nearby the National Veterinary Institute (SVA) in Uppsala, Sweden, on May 19 and
20, 2016.
Technology providers and end users discussed issues like better process & quality control, improving
food safety and plant health. The workshop gathered more than 60 participants from eight countries
- 22 participants came from outside Sweden - with a good mix of end-user and photonics experts.
End-user and integrating actors like DeLaval, Farmic, BMP Innovation, SVA and SLU from Sweden, as
well as ICFO from Spain and Wageningen University from The Netherlands intensively discussed with
photonics experts about how the precision farming can become reality.
Comments from end-user actors showed that photonics is all around but the photonics term itself is
still not known outside the photonics community.
Torsten Eriksson (SLU) said: I usually do not think specifically about Photonics, like “What kind of
Photonics do I need? I rather think “Is there any measurement technology available that I could use
for measuring this? This workshop clarifies the major role of photonics though.”
The variety of photonics solutions presented spanned from e.g.
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LED lighting to increase yields, earlier flowering, faster root growth/germination & better
control of plant growth,
remote vegetation monitoring & plant health analysis from e.g. satellites,
pest control through laser profiling,
improved food safety by e.g. optical detection and removal of mycotoxins from a grain lot
and by better grain sorting,
reduce animal stress through non-contact and/or minimally invasive treatment and
diagnostics & remote monitoring of grazing animals.
The workshop has generated many new connections between experts of both areas that will result in
collaborations on new products or on research and innovation projects.
37 presentations were held thereof 12 were pitch talks from companies. On the first day,
matchmaking between photonics and agro-industry representatives gathering half of the participants
was organized. The first ended with a nice social dinner in the Garden of Carl von Linné. The second
day was perfected by a guided tour to the Swedish Veterinary Institute and to the research center
Lövsta from the Swedish Agricultural University.
This workshop was jointly organized by the Horizon2020 Photonics Public Private Partnership, the EU
project OASIS, the Swedish Agricultural University and the Swedish Veterinary Institute.
Click below to download the presentations:
Download documentation
During the matchmaking event
Mårten Hetta, Swedish Agricultural University (SLU)
talks about the “Possibilities for Agriculture and Livestock
Farming using Light-Based Technologies
Time to talk to each other at the coffee break
At the research institute of the Swedish
Agricultural University
About Photonic Sweden
PhotonicSweden is an economic association which was founded in 2011 in order to unify the
community of the Swedish optics and photonics, including companies, R&D organizations,
academia and competence centra in order to strengthen the field. PhotonicSweden enables
a stronger collaboration of industry and science and is the voice towards the national and
international community in optics and photonics. www.photonicsweden.org