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Dr. Thomas Schilling has been one of the Managing Directors of BASF Digital Farming GmbH since November 2019, leading the company’s global technical and operational business. In his current role, he is responsible for digital products used by farmers worldwide. Since early 2015, he has built and managed the global IT and Engineering division of Digital Farming under the xarvio brand.
Previously, he held senior positions in other companies, including roles in R&D IT, eBusiness, data centers/cloud, portfolio management, and bioinformatics. He was responsible for Bayer’s Green IT program and served as chair of the VCI eSolutions working group.
Thomas Schilling is driving the digitalization of agriculture—with the goal of making it more sustainable and future-proof on a global scale. He is currently also active on the board of the Bitkom Agriculture Working Group.
Dr. Thomas Schilling studied physics and earned a Ph.D. in atmospheric physics, focusing on aircraft-based trace gas measurements as part of the ozone research program of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
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From pitch competitions to rapid prototyping, from expert panels to exciting keynotes - the agrifood start-up expert stage is the place to be for the start-up and open innovation ecosystem at AGRITECHNICA.
At the opening event on Sunday 09.11.2025 you can expect the following keynotes:
Impulse Talks:
Victor Veefkind, - Stream Leader Tech Intelligence Observatory a.i. at European Patent Office | Titel: Innovation in digital agriculture - the road ahead.
Niklas Veltkamp - Managing Director at Bitkom e.V. | Titel: Sowing growth, harvesting the future – how AgTech start-ups are reimagining agriculture. Prof. Dr. Andrea Büttner - Director of the Fraunhofer IVV Institute, Spokesperson for the Fraunhofer Alliance Food, Head of the Fraunhofer Cluster for Resource Technologies and Bioeconomy | Titel: We live in a globalized world - don't we? Implications for food production and supply
Moderation: Christopher Armstong
as well as the launch of the agrifood start-up services by the DLG, the one stop shop for all DLG products and services to help ag and food tech start-ups on their development journey.
Künstliche Intelligenz hält zunehmend Einzug in den Pflanzenbau. Von der gezielten Stickstoffdüngung bis zur Analyse von Mikroboden- und Wetterdaten. Moderne Modelle kombinieren lokale Wetter-, Boden- und Marktdaten mit Pflanzenwachstumsmodellen und ermöglichen so präzisere Entscheidungen auf dem Feld. Hinzu kommen Anwendungen der Bildverarbeitung, etwa zur Erkennung von Pflanzenzuständen oder Krankheitsbefällen. Im Panel diskutieren Expertinnen und Experten von Agvolution, Xarvio und Fraunhofer, welche KI-Anwendungen im Ackerbau heute bereits praxistauglich sind und welchen Mehrwert sie für Landwirtinnen und Landwirte bieten. Darüber hinaus geht es um die Frage, welche Potenziale noch ungenutzt sind: Wie können KI-gestützte Systeme dazu beitragen, Ressourcen effizienter einzusetzen, Erträge zu sichern und die Landwirtschaft resilienter gegenüber Klimaschwankungen zu machen? Was braucht es technologisch, z.B. bei Datenverfügbarkeit, Schnittstellen und Modelltransparenz aber auch politisch und gesellschaftlich, damit diese Innovationen breit eingesetzt werden können?
