The learning environment combining gamification, knowledge-based management and smart farming, and learning based on simulation pedagogy, has progressed to the piloting stage. The experiences of the farmers are good about the training being developed in the Finnish Future Farm project.
The aim of the pilot training is to develop knowledge-based management skills on farms. The first training, Knowledge-based decision-making in oat farming, took place during the growing season from May to September.
"The farmer makes a lot of decisions according to the cycle of the year and many of these decisions are based on the feeling that comes from experience," says one of the designers of the pilot training, Lecturer Juho Pirttiniemi from Jamk University of Applied Sciences. "However, there is also a lot of data available in today's agriculture that can be used to refine, anticipate and streamline decisions."
Digital twin utilizes data
The training utilizes a digital twin to simulate and test various decisions and their effects risk-free anywhere and anytime. The digital twin is a virtual modeling of a certain field on the Bioeconomy Campus, the data of which has been collected with the help of various sensors and a weather station that measure the growing conditions on the field. It also utilizes open data, such as the weather data of the Finnish Meteorological Institute and the geospatial data of the National Land Survey of Finland.
Experienced farmers participated in the pilot training, for whom goal-oriented grain farming is daily. Now, however, decisions were made in an entirely new environment and with the support of a learning community.
"I'm stunned how a computer can simulate with such precision what kind of crop to expect," comments farmer Petri Rahkonen of Korpitikka Oy, who participated in the pilot training. "The training opened up familiar things from a new perspective, how data helps in decision-making from sowing to threshing. The simulation inspired to think about different options and their economic impacts as well. For example, I have been thinking about increasing the number of seeds in the sowing.”
Working in a group of professionals is rewarding
The aim was also to pilot how decision-making can be done in the group.
“It was successful because the participants focused on the materials and in discussions pointed the essentials from different sources of information and at the same time were suitably critical,” says Lecturer Ulla Heinonen, one of the designers of the training.
“When the lecturer shared visions of using data and a digital twin in plant cultivation, I thought to myself that now the lecturer might have eaten a pretty big cake,” says farmer Jari Hurskainen, who participated in the pilot training.
"But when we got started and things began to get clearer, it didn't seem so impossible. Even though I've been farming for decades, there's always something new. This kind of working in a group of professionals is rewarding for everyone and the information can be used on one’s own farm.”
In the next phase, the pilot training will expand to international level and will be completed with independent training.
28.11.2025
