Around 1,500 schoolchildren from six EU countries have been engaged in intensive study of some of the challenges currently facing the world in the company of natural science experts. After completing each module on a different topic, they have been acting as “multipliers,” sharing their knowledge and experiences with their family, friends and classmates. Three schools from Bonn took part.

Field margins, floral plantings, and crops offering nectar and pollen to insects may contribute to ecosystem service delivery (pollination) and ecological intensification of agriculture. The application of machine learning on data collected using low-cost RGB cameras represents a new opportunity to investigate, evaluate, and optimize the attractiveness of such cropping systems to beneficial insects.

Digitalization is ushering in far-reaching change in all areas of our lives, not least in the agricultural sector. Researchers from the University of Bonn have now presented a study on how international agricultural corporations and Big Tech firms are using digital platforms to transform the agriculture industry. They make it clear that, although the technologies harbor significant potential, they also risk amplifying existing power structures and creating new dependencies.

A balanced diet is important for reducing hunger and malnutrition. Researchers thus advocate that small farmers in low- and middle-income countries should try to produce as many different foods as possible for their own consumption. However, a new study is now questioning this recommendation to some extent. It suggests that good access to regional markets is more important than farmers growing a large diversity of crops on their own smallholding. Better-functioning markets increase the variety of foods available locally, which benefits the population as a whole. The results are being published in the journal “Nature Food.”

Robotic systems play a major role for realizing the vision of sustainable crop production. While Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are increasingly used to monitor the health status of agricultural fields using sensors like RGB cameras, multi-spectral cameras, and LiDAR, it is often still necessary to literally walk into the field to do close-up inspections of individual plants or even leaves for the detection of diseases or nutrient deficiencies in early stages of plant growth. 

Agriculture today faces significant challenges that require new ways of thinking, such as smart digital technologies that enable innovative approaches. However, research gaps limit their potential to improve agriculture.

One of PhenoRob's aims is to translate research into practice. Pheno-Inspect GmbH is a 2020 start up, with a strong connection to PhenoRob, working on how to interpret image-data recorded in agricultural fields and from there on out build smart AI systems to do the same to and provide services in the agricultural industry.

The consumption of milk products, eggs and fish has a positive effect on childhood development in Africa. This has been demonstrated in a recent study by the CABI's regional centre for Africa in Nairobi, Kenya and the University of Bonn. The researchers used representative data from five African countries with over 32,000 child observations. If the children had a diet containing animal products, they suffered less from malnutrition and related developmental deficiencies. The study has now been published in the journal PNAS.