Agronetics Center With Drones and AI Opens in Bashkortostan
The new hub combines traditional agricultural research with digital tools, from crop monitoring to automated livestock selection.
A new “Agronetics Center” has opened in Ufa at Bashkir State Agrarian University, focusing on the digital transformation of agriculture. The center will work on projects ranging from AI-assisted pea breeding to drone-based field monitoring and automated livestock analysis, including computer vision systems that assess pigs for breeding purposes, according to the GlavAgronom portal.
Wheat Diseases and Pig “Selection”
The center brings together six laboratories where conventional agricultural equipment is integrated with digital systems. In the unmanned systems lab, students have trained a neural network to detect wheat diseases such as brown rust and septoria with 90% accuracy. Drones identify infections in real time and link the data to GPS coordinates. In the intelligent systems lab, algorithms analyze video feeds to evaluate body length, leg positioning and the number of teats in pigs at breeding centers, helping automate the selection of optimal animals.
For crops, researchers are developing a “Digital Pea Breeder” platform that uses 3D models and neural networks to accelerate the creation of new varieties. Climate chambers developed by the university allow up to three harvests per year by controlling light, humidity and temperature.
Passing Knowledge to Future Generations
University officials added that the creation of the center marks an important step in advancing agricultural science and education in Russia. Integrating traditional methods with digital technologies is expected to accelerate progress in breeding, livestock management and land-use planning.
