So, I am interested in computer science applications in Sustainable farming and Forestry. Please suggest research areas, existing ideas etc. ? other suggestions are welcome.
Remote sensing applications to monitor indigenous forests and forest conversions. You can follow the stands, tracking changes, identify pests, model spreading, predict spreading and changes in forests. GIS, satellite, hyperspectral photos and their evaluation is all in that area.
Pest spreading models are always precious, reverse tracking of livestock diseases could be fantastic (for instance, 5-10 observations in different locations and time, calculate where the pest was introduced).
If you are interested in forest monitoring and predictions or pest spreading, I offer you consultations and potentially collaboration later.
There are models developed that can be used for sustainability assessment of nutrient flows and GHG footprint at individual farm level (e.g. DAISY) or more high-level at regional level (CAPRI, MITERRA). Also, there are soil models developed for organic carbon estimations and build-up (C-simulator a.o.). You may want look up and develop in those categories.
Regarding the forestry side, one of the crucial problems related to forest sustainability is the forest fires. Using remote sensing (RS) and geographical information systems (GIS), it may be possible to collect and evaluate the data to forecast the possible forest fires beforehand and design an early alert system.
Concerning the agriculture side, there are several journals related to the sustainability in agriculture such as: "Precision Agriculture" and "Computers and Electronics in Agriculture". You will see many articles on past research studies. Examining these past studies carefully may create new research ideas on sustainability in agriculture.