Sustainable intensification can raise agricultural productivity and reduce input use while limiting environmental damage. Today’s farming sector faces mounting challenges, including biodiversity loss, climate change, soil degradation, and a shortage of rural labor. At the same time, farmers are under pressure to provide plentiful, affordable food in the face of increasingly unpredictable weather. Yet, the exact steps needed to implement sustainable intensification remain uncertain. These growing pressures are intensifying and reshaping the foundations of crop production, making innovative approaches—such as spot farming—essential for balancing productivity with environmental sustainability.1-3
Image Credit: Photo Magistr/Shutterstock.com
Necessity of Sustainable Intensification
Global research aimed at boosting the productivity and efficiency of major crops has achieved notable progress through high-efficiency cultivars and tailored agronomic practices.
These advances ensured greater sustainable production but are embedded within conventional plant production systems. Such systems have evolved through structural changes in agriculture and technical advances driven by scale, speed, and competitiveness. As a result, current cropping systems reflect outdated economic and technological priorities instead of crops’ biological needs.1
To achieve sustainable intensification, it is essential to start by focusing on the needs of cultivated plants. This means fine-tuning key farming parameters to boost yields while using fertilizers, energy, pesticides, and water more efficiently. It is also important to address rising environmental concerns and societal expectations by embedding sustainability considerations into the design of agricultural systems.
The next step is to develop suitable technical solutions that align with these updated approaches. Finally, these solutions must be thoroughly assessed for their practicality and economic feasibility to ensure that future cropping systems remain productive, sustainable, and resilient over the long term.1,3
New Cropping Systems Requirements
While developing a cropping system aligned with sustainable intensification goals, three interconnected levels must be considered: plant, field, and landscape.
Each level involves unique requirements and restrictions that influence crop yield, resource efficiency, ecosystem services, and social demands. Optimal growth depends on adequate light and space, minimal competition, high-quality soil with appropriate texture and fauna, and timely access to water and nutrients at the plant level. Meeting these needs ensures healthy plants and efficient use of growth factors.1
At the field level, practices must focus on environmental protection and efficiency. This includes minimizing agro-chemical use, preventing their spread to non-target areas, protecting soil by limiting equipment crossings, and managing fields with attention to wind, humidity, rainfall, and pollinator activity.
Structural adaptations are required to align with geographic and climatic conditions at the landscape level. These include intelligently utilizing areas with varying productivity, designing cultivation patterns to reduce wind and soil erosion, restoring natural features like hedgerows, creating buffer zones and refuges to support biodiversity, and developing landscapes that also offer recreational value.
Guiding principles for sustainable intensification include allocating crops to optimal areas, maximizing spatial and seasonal resource use, improving agrochemical efficiency, and reinforcing landscape structures to support long-term agricultural productivity.1
The Concept: Spot Farming
Spot farming, a forward-thinking agricultural concept, is based on the premise that most agricultural production areas are not homogeneous/inherently heterogeneous. It extends the integrated pest management (IPM) principles, which emphasize site-specific, knowledge-driven, and preventive strategies, into a broader systems-level approach. Although IPM focuses on yield stabilization and reducing environmental harm, spot farming could increase yields, enhance ecosystem services, and improve climate resilience.1,2
Developed by the Julius Kühn Institute, Thünen Institute, and TU Braunschweig, this approach divides arable land into autonomous, smaller “spots” characterized by homogeneity in ecological factors such as soil and microclimate. These zones are cultivated using methods/crops best suited to their specific properties, maximizing sustainability and efficiency. Soil and yield maps are utilized through map overlaying to define these “spots”.1,2
A key innovation in spot farming is the complete management of these spots using autonomous robot systems operating at the plant level. These systems enable precise seeding, fertilization, and pesticide application, reducing input use and environmental impact and boosting productivity.
The lighter, smaller machinery decreases soil compaction and allows efficient operation on very small plots. The system supports landscape-sensitive farming by integrating structural elements and promoting biodiversity. This targeted method supports a more adaptable agricultural model aligning crop production with natural site conditions and expands ecosystem services such as erosion control and biodiversity.1-3
Advantages of Spot Farming
Spot farming focuses on plant-level precision to increase productivity and protect the environment.
In nutrient management, it directly uses micro-dosed fertilizer applications to the root zone, improving uptake efficiency and reducing nitrogen leaching.
Crop protection is integrated from the start using diverse rotations, reduced density, mechanical weeding, and spot spraying, curtailing chemical use and improving resistance management. A key feature is equidistant planting to reduce competition, ensuring each plant has optimal access to light, water, and nutrients.2
This method cuts seed and seed treatment use by more than 50% and improves crop health and uniformity. The Julius Kühn Institute has developed a technique to digitally map individual seeds, enabling precise downstream processes. Sparse, evenly spaced crops are better aerated and less disease-prone, supporting IPM goals.
Mechanical weeding in multiple directions becomes a reality without costly sensors. Yet, achieving these benefits requires extremely precise planting and weeding, which current machinery still struggles to provide.2
Click here to download this article for free
Although modern crop varieties are bred for dense sowing under standardized conditions, equidistant systems require different plant architectures. Field trials with wheat are exploring optimal seed densities and traits. Early results show that even current varieties can maintain/improve yields under stress when compared to conventional drill sowing. These insights guide breeding programs to develop varieties tailored for equidistant planting, improving productivity and climate resilience.2
Meanwhile, decades of land consolidation and machinery use have removed functional landscape elements such as hedgerows and buffer zones, which once reduced erosion. Spot farming reintegrates these features into field design, improving ecological connectivity, biodiversity, and resilience to extreme weather—key aspects of climate-adapted agriculture. For its technical implementation, machinery used in spot farming must meet specific criteria. It should be smaller and lighter than conventional equipment, work efficiently on small-scale plots, realize uniform and precise seed patterns, and support plant-specific treatment.2
The Future of Spot Farming
Spot farming presents a promising path toward sustainable intensification by aligning crop management with ecological conditions at a micro scale.
Its emphasis on plant-level precision, autonomous robotics, and landscape-sensitive practices could enhance productivity, reduce inputs, and support biodiversity. However, big challenges remain, including cost-efficiency, system reliability, and the complexity of autonomous technologies.
More research is essential to quantify its benefits in terms of ecological services, pest and disease control, and overall productivity before broader adoption becomes feasible.
References and Further Reading
- Wegener, J. K. et al. (2019). Spot farming-an alternative for future plant production. Journal of Cultivated Plants/Journal für Kulturpflanzen, 71(4). DOI: 10.5073/JfK.2019.04.02, https://www.openagrar.de/receive/openagrar_mods_00048665
- Wegener, J. K. (2025) Spot farming: A novel concept for sustainable and climate-resilient crop production [Online] Available at https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/article/spot-farming-a-novel-concept-for-sustainable-and-climate-resilient-crop-production/196878/ (Accessed on 18 August 2025)
- Spot Farming: Focus on Individual Plants [Online] Available at https://magazin.tu-braunschweig.de/en/m-post/spot-farming-focus-on-individual-plants/ (Accessed on 18 August 2025)
Disclaimer: The views expressed here are those of the author expressed in their private capacity and do not necessarily represent the views of AZoM.com Limited T/A AZoNetwork the owner and operator of this website. This disclaimer forms part of the Terms and conditions of use of this website.