A highlight of our Kenyan guests’ visit was today’s trip to Müncheberg to visit ZALF (www.zalf.de) and UGT (https://ugt-online.de), a company that emerged from ZALF. There, we had the opportunity to learn about international state-of-the-art applied research in the use of sensor technologies (including IoT) in agriculture. Unfortunately, our two actively involved students, Max and Tim, were unable to join us, but the joint projects will certainly benefit from the insights gained during the visit.
Thanks to the support of our long-standing project partner Prof. Hans-Peter (“Piet”) Piorr from HNE Eberswalde, we were first welcomed by the two researchers Dr. Katja Kramp (with her dog Lissy) and Dr. Mathias Hoffmann. They introduced us to current research methods and results involving IoT sensors and LoRaWAN. An especially important topic — also highly relevant for potential applications in Kenya — was the development and use of low-cost sensors (see the publications of Dr. Mathias Hoffmann at https://www.zalf.de/de/forschung_lehre/publikationen/Seiten/default.aspx?idxp=x1274x.
At UGT, Dr. Marlene Pätzig presented complex solutions and equipment for soil analysis, including lysimeters. These systems were certainly impressive, but their implementation within the scope of our university projects appears to be too demanding and therefore unlikely to be feasible in the short term.
At the end of the visit, the needs and experiences of the group — especially those of our guests — were actively discussed, which provided UGT with further valuable insights beyond the photos of interested visitors from Africa.
It was particularly appreciated that both institutions conducted their tours in fluent English, which made the experience highly informative for our Kenyan guests.
Before heading back to Brandenburg by university shuttle (many thanks to our driver Enrico Franke), we made a final stop at Moses’ restaurant in Buckow at the invitation of our host. Thank you, Piet, for a truly successful and enriching day!