The Horizon EU project NextGenBioPest is thrilled to announce a partnership with CERBERUS, an ambitious project harnessing cutting-edge technology to transform pest monitoring and pest management across European agriculture. This collaboration merges NextGenBioPest’s expertise in sustainable pest control solutions with CERBERUS’s advanced monitoring technologies, aiming to deliver a powerful new approach for early pest detection and targeted treatment recommendations that reduce pesticide dependency and enhance crop resilience.
Traditional pest monitoring methods are costly and time-intensive, often limiting how quickly and precisely farmers can respond to pest outbreaks. Field visits to identify pests are laborious, and traditional traps can only offer limited spatial and temporal coverage, leaving gaps in pest surveillance. CERBERUS is addressing this challenge by combining satellite data, IoT, robotics, and citizen science to create a dynamic, large-scale monitoring system. This system promises unprecedented accuracy in pest detection and treatment timing, allowing farmers to reduce their reliance on chemical sprays and respond proactively to emerging threats.
Innovative, Multi-Layered Approach to Early Pest Detection
The NextGenBioPest-CERBERUS partnership leverages the strengths of both projects to bring a comprehensive, technology-driven solution to pest management. By integrating NextGenBioPest’s pest control innovations with CERBERUS’s advanced detection and data analysis tools, the collaboration will enable farmers to make timely, precise, and environmentally sustainable pest control decisions.
Key elements of the partnership include:
Advanced Pest Monitoring: CERBERUS is revolutionizing pest surveillance by integrating multiple data sources: high-resolution satellite data from Copernicus, IoT-connected insect traps that provide daily updates, robot-based crop monitoring, and data from citizen-scientist contributions through a mobile app. By combining these sources, CERBERUS can detect and map pest outbreaks at both large and hyper-local scales, offering farmers detailed risk assessments with unprecedented accuracy.
AI-Powered Risk Mapping and Treatment Recommendations: All data gathered through the CERBERUS monitoring system will be processed through an AI-powered cloud platform, generating real-time risk maps and tailored pest control recommendations. This will enable farmers to apply treatments precisely where and when they’re needed, reducing unnecessary pesticide applications and minimizing environmental impact. NextGenBioPest’s expertise in biopesticides and low-risk pest control agents will enhance these treatment recommendations, providing eco-friendly alternatives to conventional chemical sprays.
Efficient, Sustainable Pest Control Solutions: By enabling early pest detection, CERBERUS allows farmers to treat infestations at the initial stages, when pest populations are low and treatments are most effective. This reduces the need for high pesticide volumes and supports the responsible use of eco-friendly control agents. NextGenBioPest’s portfolio of biological control methods—including biological agents, RNA-based pesticides, and resistance inducers—will be integrated within CERBERUS’s framework, providing sustainable solutions that align with EU regulations and environmental goals.
Empowering Farmers and Communities with Real-Time Data: CERBERUS’s platform is designed to be user-friendly, allowing farmers and stakeholders easy access to real-time pest data, risk assessments, and actionable insights. The partnership aims to empower farmers not only with effective pest control options but also with the knowledge and resources needed to make informed, sustainable decisions.
A New Era of Precision and Sustainability in European Agriculture
The partnership between NextGenBioPest and CERBERUS represents a significant advancement in pest management, combining groundbreaking technologies with sustainable solutions to protect European crops and ecosystems. Together, these projects are set to provide farmers with a transformative toolkit that minimizes pesticide reliance, protects biodiversity, and promotes resilience against pest threats in an environmentally responsible way.