I’m really happy to share that the latest issue of effzett — the external research magazine of Forschungszentrum Jülich — features our work on digital twins of agricultural systems. The article highlights how digital twins of real farms and experimental setups aren’t just a cool concept anymore — they are actively helping us optimize farm management, explore future climate impacts, and drive regenerative farming decisions.
For our part, my team and I have developed a digital twin of a real world farm, the Damianshof, as part of the ReGenFarm project coordinated by the Institutes of Bio- and Geosciences of the Forschungszentrum Jülich and Bayer AG. This virtual farm combines detailed data on soil, crop rotations, weather, and management practices with process models so we can simulate real outcomes under different scenarios without disturbing the fields themselves.
Why is this important? Because agriculture today faces huge uncertainties: shifting weather patterns, pressure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and the need to safeguard soil health for generations to come. Digital twins help us tackle these uncertainties. We can test how management changes, carbon-farming practices, or climate stresses affect soil organic carbon and yields long before they happen in reality. That means better decisions for farmers, stronger insights for policymakers, and more resilient, climate-smart farming systems overall.
Being featured in this article feels great — not just for me personally, but for the idea that computational tools like digital twins can help transform how we understand, manage, and sustain agricultural landscapes.