The Western Balkans can benefit greatly from this technology as agriculture is the main backbone of the economy. This particularly applies to the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina in Serbia where agriculture represents 40 % of GDP.  To support the region's agricultural advancement, the EU-funded Agrosense project is teaming up with the Centre for Measurement Technologies in Precision Agriculture (Metep@) at the University of Novi Sad. The focus is on developing and applying these new technologies so that the research community and the Western Balkans can benefit.

Agrosense has already helped the centre to purchase a thermal camera and recruit new researchers to further the project’s aims. It has conducted numerous training sessions revolving around advancements in the field and new technologies. Important exchanges in staff and knowledge were also undertaken.

Meetings were held within the project partners and with potential partners outside the Agrosense consortium. As a result, several proposals for joint research projects were submitted under different programmes and a solid base was formed for future cooperation and joint research work related to the Agrosense activities.

In October 2009, the project organised the Biosense09 workshop on sensing technology in agriculture, forestry and the environment in Novi Sad with commendable participation from all project partners. The partners contributed significantly to the successful organisation of the workshop, where a total of 23 papers and seminars were presented. In addition, the workshop hosted 15 experts from Canada, the EU and the US, as well as 26 experts from the Western Balkan region.

Project partners have also participated in many international conferences, gaining access to research and promoting project results to a wider scientific community. This has garnered considerable interest from academics in related fields, such as ecology and water management, as well as from people within the industry.

Many delegates where especially interested in furthering the development of systems based on technologies like WSN and remote sensing. As a consequence, the Metep@ centre was renamed the BioSense Centre to take advantage of the success of the evolving Agrosense project and Biosense09 workshop. This marks the project’s success and opens the door for considerable exchange of knowledge, and advances sensor technology in the field of agriculture.

Source: Article published in research*eu results magazine (September 2011)