To manage agricultural measures such as fertilisation, irrigation and plant protection in a targeted way, detailed data is required for the digital cataloguing of plant populations. These new approaches in precision agriculture promise more sustainable and efficient cultivation of food and biological resources under the conditions arising from climate change.
The international research project MULTIFUSE (Advanced Multimodal Sensing and Data Fusion for Early Digital Detection of Plant Stress Symptoms) aims to research these topics extensively. The project brings together five European and one Japanese research partner under the leadership of Leibniz University Hannover (LUH) to jointly study the multimodal application of sensing procedures for plant monitoring. The project has received 846,640 euros from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), 150,000 euros of which are allocated to LUH.
“The focus is on the early recognition of abiotic stressors using advanced methods such as hyperspectral imaging, Raman spectroscopy and polarimetry,” explained project head Prof. Dr. Dag Heinemann of the Hannover Centre for Optical Technologies at LUH. His phytophotonics working group conducts research at the interface between plant science, physics and the engineering sciences. The MULTIFUSE consortium intends to use its research findings to help more effectively address the challenges of climate change for agriculture. To support international cooperation, MULTIFUSE is also developing a screening platform that allows for international comparisons and a cross-border data management system.
The project was selected for funding as part of the call for proposals “Digital Transformation and Robotics in Sustainable Agriculture between Europe and Japan” from the European Interest Group CONCERT-Japan. The funding period runs from summer 2025 to summer 2028. In addition to LUH, the project partners are the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (Japan), the National Research Council of Italy, the University of Girona (Spain), the French National Centre for Scientific Research and the Hungarian Research Network Institute for Computer Science and Control.
Note to editors:
For further information, please contact Prof. Dr. Dag Heinemann, Hannover Centre for Optical Technologies at LUH (tel. +49 511 762 3171, email: dag.heinemann@hot.uni-hannover.de).
