Research

The project aims to develop a practical “climate check” that provides agricultural businesses with a solid basis for decision-making to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It is intended to derive suitable indicators from existing farm data so that the emissions situation can be clearly assessed. A benchmarking system will be used to make farm-specific reduction potentials visible and translate them into concrete action recommendations. A digital catalog of measures will form the basis for strategies tailored to the conditions of each individual farm. To ensure the instrument is usable and effective in practice, the climate check will be tested on 30 selected farms. The findings from this pilot phase will feed into the development of a guide for both farmers and agricultural advisors, enabling a standardized yet farm-specific process for identifying measures and providing appropriate advice. In this way, the project will create a tool that supports the implementation of effective mitigation measures and allows it to be used across Austria by different advisory organizations.

The project “Strengthening food security through small-scale farming and healthy regional food” is implemented by the Institute of Development Research (IDR) at BOKU University, which investigates agricultural transformation processes at both local and international levels. The project aims to strengthen the resilience of regional food production and supply in Lower Austria so that small-scale farms and market gardens can continue to provide the population with vegetables, herbs, animal products, and alternative protein sources, even under crisis conditions such as supply-chain disruptions, energy price and supply crises, and extreme weather events. The starting points are the reference requirements of households in terms of quantity, diversity, and seasonality, as well as sustainable production and food availability in selected municipalities and regions. Comparing these factors will help identify dependencies, supply gaps, and opportunities for strengthening resilience. Together with municipalities, farms, and citizens, self-sufficiency programmes for households, restaurants, and public institutions will be developed and tested in two Living Labs, one focusing on market gardening combined with hedgerows, and the other on vegetable production with irrigation and hedgerow management, as well as on ten demonstration farms in Lower Austria. A train-the-trainer programme will support the wider application of these approaches beyond the participating municipalities. Through IDR’s international networks, small-scale farms will benefit from knowledge exchange, innovation, and research. Awareness-raising and knowledge transfer will be supported through workshops and field visits, communication activities, multilingual documentation, fact sheets, a best-practice video on the self-sufficiency models, information boards with QR codes, and posters displayed in municipalities and at BOKU. These activities will be complemented by at least one conference contribution, one practice-oriented workshop, and one cooking event for stakeholders in Lower Austria. As the project’s main synthesis, a cause-and-effect model will be developed that links processes, pressures, impacts, and responses across past, present, and future scenarios. The model will connect dietary habits, agricultural management, environmental conditioning, including soil, biodiversity, and water, food supply, and their effects on health, resilience, and regional development. The project will provide recommendations for action to at least 100 direct participants from practice, policy, and research. Its added value for municipalities lies in the development of evidence-based decision-making tools, practical food-supply models, and materials for citizen engagement aimed at strengthening independent regional food self-sufficiency in Lower Austria.

General ChatBotSonar Pro English translation: From the perspective of affected farmers, milk production faces multiple challenges. Economic viability and the workload of farms are problems, while animal health, performance, and sustainability are also expected to improve. Digital assistance systems (e.g., activity, rumination, temperature, location, or rumen sensors; networked milking/feeding technology) promise early detection, better decision-making, and reduced workload. In practice, however, their actual usefulness often falls short of expectations: the systems are purchased, initial use begins—and later is reduced or discontinued. Common reasons cited in practice are not primarily the “function” of the devices/software, but rather the human-technology interaction: unclear data flows, lacking data literacy, alarm overload, insufficient integration into work routines, unsuitable interfaces, unclear cost-benefit relationships, support and training needs, and questions about data ownership/cloud solutions. Research-oriented contributions show, however, that, when properly integrated, sensor technology can improve animal welfare, animal health, and efficiency while reducing workload. For Austrian dairy farms, structured handling of data is central: herd-management inputs, milk recording data, and 24/7 sensor data generate large amounts of information that must be selected, checked for plausibility, and transferred into decision-making routines. This does not always succeed: either available data are used too little—or the focus on “dashboards” displaces direct observation of the animals. Practical reports also point to open issues regarding digital infrastructure (connectivity), data sovereignty, and role definitions between farmers, veterinarians, and advisory services. Austrian institutions (e.g., Vetmeduni, HBLFA Raumberg-Gumpenstein) are working on application-oriented solutions and communication, including smart farming, AI applications, and the use of sensors. This leads to a clear need for practice-oriented concepts that clarify technology, work organization, decision rules, and roles—and that support implementation on farms. The present project addresses these practical needs.