Digital agriculture: price for smart feed production

Seven digital projects have been awarded the state government's digitalisation awards. The award winners have developed innovations in the fields of agriculture and medicine, among others. By Bastian Pöhls The digitisation prizes are endowed with a total of around 95,000 euros. The first place, combined with 25,000 euros, goes to the Kiel-based company Silolytics.

The start-up has developed a sensor and software platform to optimize silage production. During feed production, the system provides detailed information about quantity and material in the silo. The aim is to adjust production in such a way that as little feed as possible spoils. The jury said: "While agriculture is still comparatively little digitised in many areas, Silolytics relies on modern data technologies in an important sector of the economy for Schleswig-Holstein".

Prizes for digital innovations in medicine and crafts second place (prize money 15,000 euros) go to anymize GmbH from Kiel. With their development, companies with strict data protection rules should be able to use AI models. The system automatically anonymizes sensitive data before sending it to the AI. The development could be used in the medical field.

The third prize (10,000 euros) was won by the company Revolvie from Kuden (Dithmarschen district). Their software is intended to help small companies, especially in the craft sector, to calculate offers realistically. The system should quickly detect whether an order is profitable or not. Special prizes for environmental protection and education The special prize for environmentally friendly developments (25,000 euros) is awarded to PROGEEK GmbH from Wees (district of Schleswig-Flensburg).

The company has developed a system for controlling the irrigation of municipal green spaces. Soil sensors provide real-time information on water demand. The platform uses this to create optimised irrigation routes. Three special prizes in the field of education, endowed with 6,500 euros each, will go to the Dentability Institute from Köhn (Plön district), edaira GmbH (Kiel) and Softstack GmbH (Flensburg).

The Digitisation Prize has been awarded annually since 2018. The jury consists of representatives of the state government, the City Association, the Digital Economy Schleswig-Holstein and the Independent State Centre for Data Protection.