Guest Lecture: Prof. Christian Bredemeier (UFRGS) on Precision and Digital Agriculture in Brazil

On 13 May 2026, the TUM Precision Agriculture Lab (PAG Lab) hosted Prof. Christian Bredemeier (UFRGS, Brazil) at the Weihenstephan campus for a guest lecture, followed by an afternoon visit to our Dürnast Research Station. The visit was also a homecoming: Prof. Bredemeier did his PhD at TUM (2000–2005) with Prof. Urs Schmidhalter at the former Chair of Plant Nutrition, and his return to Weihenstephan closed a nice 20-year loop.

The Talk

In his lecture, “Research in precision and digital agriculture in the context of the Brazilian agribusiness”, Prof. Bredemeier gave an overview of Brazilian agriculture and the projects his group at UFRGS — together with the Grupo de Estudos em Agricultura Digital (GEAD) — has been pursuing in recent years. The talk moved from sensor-based nitrogen management in cereals, where canopy reflectance and biomass signals are translated into in-season N recommendations under tropical and subtropical cropping conditions, to flood and drought resistance phenotyping in soybean breeding, and the broader sustainable and digital agriculture agenda. He closed with the Brazilian policy and innovation landscape.

About the Speaker

Prof. Bredemeier is a Professor at UFRGS and one of the leading voices shaping the precision and digital agriculture agenda in Brazil. He is President of the Brazilian Commission for Precision and Digital Agriculture (MAPA), Second Vice-President of AsBraAP, an associate researcher at CEDRA, and a member of INCT — Low-Carbon Agriculture. He teaches in the graduate programs in Crop Science (UFRGS) and Precision Agriculture (UFSM).

Visit to the Precision Agriculture Lab at Dürnast

In the afternoon, Prof. Bredemeier joined us at Dürnast for a tour of our ongoing field experiments and a discussion of current PAG Lab work on UAV-based phenotyping, hyperspectral sensing, and nitrogen management. The conversation quickly turned into an open exchange on whether methods developed for Central-European intensive cropping systems transfer to large-scale Brazilian production, or vice versa, and where joint work could add value.

Connections and Next Steps

There was a clear shared agenda around sensor-based in-season nitrogen decisions, UAV phenotyping across crop systems and regions. The visit also sat inside a wider network: Prof. Bredemeier previously hosted Dr. Leonardo Bastos (University of Georgia) as a visiting professor, and Leo later joined our BIGSTAR workshop at TUM in Nov 2025. These overlapping circles between Weihenstephan, Athens (GA), and Porto Alegre make joint activities, research, and student exchange straightforward next steps.

Thanks

Special thanks to PD Dr. Yuncai Hu for helping organize the visit, to Prof. Bredemeier for delivering a lecture full of insights and filled with memories of his time as a doctoral student.

— TUM Precision Agriculture Lab