Weiz, Austria, May 10, 2022 – Pessl Instruments, in cooperation with meteoblue, decided to offer aid to Ukrainian farmers so that their work on farms would continue undistracted during the crisis.

Pessl Instruments has been working with Ukrainian farmers for decades now and we were devastated to hear the struggles that they are facing. Ukraine is known for its fertile soils and as such also the export of wheat, barley, sunflower and maize. Planting, harvesting and exports have all been disrupted now. Either by the lack of fertilizer, low supplies of fuel for tractors or military activity that impacts the closure of the ports.

Planting, sowing, and all other farming processes are hard work. We can only imagine how tough they can get during such a crisis that Ukraine is going through now. We believe that farmers should be allowed and supported in any way possible, not only to safely access their fields and finish the winter wheat harvest, but also to safely begin the spring season. At Pessl Instruments we decided to offer help in our way with free weather forecast and disease modeling licenses with iMETOS VWS.

iMETOS VWS virtual weather station is a virtual weather station with no physical sensors and as such requires no maintenance. We find this feature especially important, since going to the fields is now very limited and possibly even dangerous for Ukrainian farmers. With iMETOS VWS, farmers will get a complete decision support service that provides weather forecast, offers disease models, and helps with work planning – a decision support system to plan the field-visits only when really necessary.

Disease modeling is an important part of successful farming. It will offer Ukrainian farmers a look into the future and anticipate potential problems related to pest infestation, fungal, bacterial, or any other type of disease, and weather forecast activation will give them site-specific and real-time weather data for a better understanding what is happening in the fields and that will support the planning of the future farming activities.

“We always put the farmers first. That’s why it is important to us to help those in need when we have the chance. With offering free licenses for disease modeling and weather forecasting we will aid Ukrainian farmers to plan their activities only when it’s really needed. So their work will be undisrupted, but they will be kept safe,”

concludes Gottfried Pessl, CEO and founder of Pessl Instruments.

Ukrainian farmers, spite being an existing METOS® client or not, can contact our team for a free license here.