Sensing and Monitoring in Modern Agriculture: New Technologies for Improving Crop Management

Dear Colleagues,

The global challenges posed by climate change, population growth, and the need for sustainable resource management have intensified the demand for innovative solutions in agriculture. Modern crop management must strike a delicate balance between increasing productivity and minimizing environmental impact. In this context, sensing and monitoring technologies have emerged as pivotal tools to enable precision agriculture, optimize resource use, and promote sustainability across agricultural systems.

This Special Issue of AgriEngineering seeks to provide a platform for groundbreaking research and innovative applications in sensing and monitoring technologies that address these challenges. By bringing together interdisciplinary contributions, we aim to highlight the role of emerging technologies in transforming agricultural practices into more efficient, sustainable, and resilient systems.

We welcome the submission of a wide range of contributions, including research articles, review papers, application notes, and short communications, that explore (but are not limited to) the following topics:

• Applications and Developments of Remote Sensing in Agriculture: harnessing satellite- and UAV-based systems for large-scale crop monitoring and management;
• Innovations in Ground Sensing and Proximal Sensing Systems: novel methods and non-invasive sensors for the real-time monitoring of soil, plant, and environmental variables;
• Virtual Sensors and Data Fusion: the integration of proximal sensing, remote sensing, machine learning, and crop modeling to develop intelligent systems for precision crop management;
• Emerging Sensing Technologies in Agriculture: the exploration of novel technologies, including hyperspectral, multispectral, and thermal imaging, and their application in agriculture;
• Autonomous Data Collection: leveraging robots and autonomous vehicles for efficient and automated field data collection;
• Automated Decision-Making Systems: the development of AI-driven systems to support real-time and precise decision-making in crop management;
• Digital Agriculture: applications of artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning, and big data analytics to enhance crop monitoring and resource optimization;
• Sustainable Resource Management: advanced sensing technologies for efficient use of water, energy, fertilizers, and soil in agricultural processes;
• Real-Time Monitoring Systems: the implementation of autonomous and online systems for continuous crop monitoring and management;
• Environmental Footprint Assessment: automated calculation and monitoring of green, CO2, and water footprints in agricultural systems to support sustainability goals;
• Sensing Crop Variables and Phenotyping Across Diverse Environments: innovations tailored for indoor, outdoor, green-door, and greenhouse systems;
• Plant Pathogen Detection and Disease Diagnosis: the development and application of sensors for early detection of plant pathogens and crop diseases.

This Special Issue is an opportunity to bring together researchers, practitioners, and industry professionals to explore how these technologies can shape the future of sustainable agriculture. The contributions will not only enhance our understanding of these advancements but also provide actionable insights for farmers, policymakers, and stakeholders striving to implement sustainable agricultural practices.

We encourage submissions that demonstrate interdisciplinary approaches, practical applications, and the potential scalability of the proposed technologies. Contributions from fields such as agricultural sciences, engineering, data science, and environmental studies are particularly welcome.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Flavio Capraro
Dr. Santiago Tosetti
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. AgriEngineering is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• smart proximal and remote sensing technologies in agriculture
• wireless sensor networks (WSNs)
• satellite multi-spectral images
• unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)
• automatic guided vehicles (AGVs)
• sensors technologies
• digital agriculture
• precision agriculture
• virtual sensors
• software
• embedded electronics systems
• phenotyping