Project

Today, farms in Saxony and central Germany are confronted with regulatory and social expectations that are difficult to reconcile in terms of economic efficiency. Small and medium-sized farms (SMFs) are particularly affected, because they are expected to continuously increase their efficiency, improve the quality of the products and at the same time, conserve resources and the environment. Conventional methods of increasing yields promise limited optimization potential. Furthermore, harsh conditions on the world market, often force farmers to sell their products at low prices.

Novel digital technologies could help to reconcile the seemingly contradictory demands of economic efficiency and ecology in the SMF sector, but there is a lack of financial and temporal resources to implement such innovations. This is where EXPRESS comes in. This field of experimentation offers farmers in Saxony a low-threshold entry into digital processes, which is expertly supported by our partners in the research network. In addition to the technological aspects of the project, a broad network of agricultural, political, scientific and social actors will be established in order to jointly test, apply and develop new technologies in an environment based on mutual exchange. This comprehensive strategy ensures that the newly-acquired knowledge is collected centrally and made available to all relevant actors. In this way, agricultural SMFs can also benefit fully from the opportunities offered by digitalization and thus remain competitive in the long term.

Project Duration: September 1, 2019 – August 31, 2025