AgriTech Innovation – TreeDigital

With its numerous companies in the upstream and downstream sectors of the agriculture and horticulture value chains, agribusiness is an important economic sector for the German-Dutch border region.



Increasing efficiency while saving resources is essential for the competitiveness and future viability of these companies.  Digitalisation, the application of AI, automation and robotisation can make a significant contribution to this. The Interreg project ‘AgriTech Innovation – TreeDigital’ is developing a creative ecosystem in which people, technologies and ideas work together to drive innovation. The German-Dutch border region is becoming a hub for the development of such innovations with a significant impact beyond the region.



As a flagship project for the industry’s innovative strength, an automated, digital assistance system is being developed that, for the first time, combines sensor and drone data with information from practitioners to record the vitality status of tree nursery crops. The data is systematically analysed, patterns are recognised algorithmically and machine learning is used to generate previously inaccessible insights that serve as a basis for decision-making on horticultural measures. The development focuses on the automatic evaluation of multispectral images obtained using drones and the development of a automatic speech processing module for documenting the gardener’s information.



This work is accompanied by intensive knowledge transfer and supraregional public relations work on topics related to digitalisation in agriculture, horticulture and the food industry. The aim is to create a creative ecosystem in which knowledge on digital topics is imparted in order to accelerate the digital transformation in companies in the region, reduce barriers to application and thus facilitate innovation in companies.