Spot farming: A novel concept for sustainable and climate-resilient crop production

Spot farming: A novel concept for sustainable and climate-resilient crop production Prof Dr Jens Karl Wegener from the Julius Kühn Institute in Braunschweig, Germany, discusses Spot Farming, which he considers a novel concept for sustainable and climate-resilient crop production.Modern agriculture faces mounting challenges: climate change, biodiversity loss, soil degradation, resource scarcity, and shifting societal expectations. At the same time, farmers are expected to produce food that is both affordable and abundant – a demand that becomes even more difficult due to increasingly unpredictable climatic conditions. These evolving pressures are not only intensifying but also fundamentally altering the operating environment for crop production. Addressing this complexity requires more than incremental change. One widely accepted approach is Integrated Pest Management (IPM), which promotes site-specific, knowledge- driven, and preventive strategies to reduce inputs and environmental impact. Spot Farming builds on the core principles of IPM and extends them into a comprehensive, systems- level concept. It aims to optimise crop production by aligning crop management with spatial variability, ecological functionality, and long-term resilience.