Detección de características de cultivo a través de sensores ópticos en un sistema orgánico de tipo strip-cropping

Hay un mercado creciente para la agricultura orgánica. Sin embargo, la falta de atención a la biodiversidad y la fertilidad del suelo de las prácticas actuales es un tema urgente. En este contexto, el proyecto SUREVEG analiza el cultivo en franjas en la producción orgánica y su implementación en cultivos intensivos para mejorar la fertilidad del suelo y la biodiversidad en toda Europa. Para contrarrestar la mano de obra adicional de un sistema de cultivos múltiples, se propone una herramienta robótica. Dentro del marco del proyecto, se producirá una versión modular de prueba de concepto (POC) que combinará tecnologías de detección con la actuación en forma de un brazo robótico. Este sistema POC se centrará en las necesidades de fertilización, que se identificarán en tiempo real y se aplicarán en una sola planta. Este artículo se centra en la captación de las características del cultivo mediante nubes de puntos obtenidas con dos lidares y en su procesamiento

Acquiring plant features with optical sensing devices in an organic strip-cropping system

There is an increasing market for organic agriculture (Golijan & Popovi\vs, 2016). However, the lack of attention for biodiversity and soil fertility of current practices is a pressing issue. The SUREVEG project (CORE Organic Cofund, 2018) therefore looks at strip-cropping in organic production and its implementation in intensive farming to improve soil fertility and biodiversity throughout Europe. The aim is to enhance resilience (Wojtkowski, 2008), system sustainability, local nutrient recycling, and soil carbon storage (Wang, Li & Alva, 2010) among others. To counteract the additional labour of a multi-crop system, a robotic tool is proposed, which will operate upside down suspended from a wide-span mobile carriage. Within the project framework, a modular proof-of-concept (POC) version will be produced, combining sensing technologies with actuation in the form of a robotic arm. This POC will focus on fertilization needs, which are to be identified in real-time at the single-plant scale

Acquiring plant features with optical sensing devices in an organic strip-cropping system

The SUREVEG project focuses on improvement of biodiversity and soil fertility in organic agriculture through strip-cropping systems. To counter the additional workforce a robotic tool is proposed. Within the project, a modular proof of concept (POC) version will be produced that will combine detection technologies with actuation on a single-plant level in the form of a robotic arm. This article focuses on the detection of crop characteristics through point clouds obtained with two lidars. Segregation in soil and plants was successfully achieved without the use of additional data from other sensor types, by calculating weighted sums, resulting in a dynamically obtained threshold criterion. This method was able to extract the vegetation from the point cloud in strips with varying vegetation coverage and sizes. The resulting vegetation clouds were compared to drone imagery, to prove they perfectly matched all green areas in said image. By dividing the remaining clouds of overlapping plants by means of the nominal planting distance, the number of plants, their volumes, and thereby the expected yields per row could be determined.</p

Strokenteelt veelbelovend

Landbouw kan in potentie veel bijdragen aan oplossingen voor maatschappelijke uitdagingen zoals het sluiten van kringlopen, de opslag van koolstof en biodiversiteitsherstel. De vraag groeit naar praktische oplossingen, die naast betrouwbare oogsten ecosysteemdiensten leveren als plaagbestrijding en biodiversiteit. Een onderzoeksteam van Wageningen University and Research (WUR) probeert een robuust teeltsysteem te ontwikkelen dat hieraan voldoet

Detección de características de cultivo a través de sensores ópticos en un sistema orgánico de tipo strip-cropping

La demanda de los productos orgánicos está creciendo, por lo cual los agricultores tradicionales están viendo la necesidad de cambiar sus empresas. Sin embargo, la falta de atención a la biodiversidad y la fertilidad del suelo en la práctica actual pueden dañar la credibilidad de los productos orgánicos en general. Por eso el proyecto SUREVEG se enfoca en la producción orgánica en sistemas de tipo strip-cropping (cultivos mixtos en franjas) y en la aplicabilidad en la agricultura intensiva como manera para mejorar la fertilidad y biodiversidad en toda Europa. El objetivo es mejorar la resiliencia, la sostenibilidad del sistema, el reciclaje local de nutrientes y el almacenamiento de carbono en el suelo. Para contrarrestar la mano de obra adicional inherente a un sistema de cultivos múltiples, uno de los objetivos principales de este proyecto es el desarrollo de maquinaria automatizada para la gestión de los sistemas strip-cropping. Se propone una herramienta robótica suspendida de un carro de amplitud larga, similar a los sistemas de pórtico utilizados en la agricultura de tráfico controlado. Dentro del marco del proyecto, se producirá una versión modular de prueba de concepto, que combinará tecnologías de detección con la actuación en forma de un brazo robótico. Esta prueba de concepto se centrará en las necesidades de fertilización, que se identificarán en tiempo real y se aplicarán a nivel de plantas individuales.Los primeros enfoques de detección consisten en medidas con sensores lidar sobre varios campos de strip-cropping, para poder comparar la arquitectura de cultivos en bandas con su contraparte en monocultivos. La hipótesis es que el rendimiento del cultivo en bandas excede el rendimiento de los cultivos de la configuración tipo monocultivo, con una diferencia adicional esperada entre 'filas centrales' y 'filas de borde'. Esa diferencia se originaría debido a la interacción de especies vegetales mutuamente beneficiosas en los bordes del sistema de cultivos múltiples, lo cual produce un cambio significativo en la estructura de la planta y el volumen del dosel. En este trabajo se ha estudiado repollo en específico, con un enfoque en el volumen de la planta por área y su consistencia en todo el campo en dos configuraciones diferentes (monocultivo, frente a franjas). Con nubes de puntos obtenidos con lidares hacia el final de la temporada de crecimiento, se ha realizado una estimación del volumen del cultivo, que puede correlacionarse con las diferencias de rendimiento. Los primeros resultados confirman la hipótesis y proporcionan información útil para el desarrollo de un futuro vehículo robotizado de fertilización automatizada

Designing strip intercropping systems (DiverIMPACTS Practice Abstract)

Strip cropping experiments have shown an increase in general biodiversity and beneficial insects, higher yields for various crops, slower development of pests and diseases, and less soil structural damage. By choosing strip widths compatible with the machines, a farmer already has, implementation on commercial farms can be realised without significant changes in equipment or management

Spatial and genetic crop diversity support ecosystem service delivery: A case of yield and biocontrol in Dutch organic cabbage production

A single focus on yield in agroecosystems comes at the expense of other ecosystem services, for instance, biocontrol of pests. In this study, we investigated the potential of intercropping to improve the delivery of ecosystem services by cropping systems. Intercropping was expected to deliver a higher yield through facilitation and complementarity while simultaneously suppressing pests via pest habitat dilution and habitat provision for natural enemies. Utilizing a network of experiments on crop diversification with different spatial arrangements and different levels of genetic crop diversity across the Netherlands in 2018, we analyzed the effect of seven intercropping designs on crop injury by pests, yield and quality in cabbage. Individual cabbage leaf injury by herbivorous pests was assessed using a newly developed diagrammatic scale. Provisioning services were measured as individual cabbage fresh weight and yield per unit area. We found a significant negative relationship between crop diversity and herbivore feeding injury per cabbage: intercropping designs with more species, accessions and/or cultivars exhibited lower feeding injury. The presence of flower strips significantly reduced overall injury in the adjacent cabbage strip, despite higher injury found in the rows closer to the flower strip. There was no clear relationship between crop diversity and fresh marketable weight per cabbage, however five out of seven intercropping designs were able to maintain total yield per area when compared with the sole crop reference. Our results show that crop diversification can simultaneously support the production ecosystem service by maintaining fresh marketable weight per cabbage plant and productivity per unit area, as well as the regulating ecosystem service of pest control. These results provide a basis for redesigning large-scale arable fields into diversified productive systems, and thereby facilitate the transition towards more sustainable farming systems. A better understanding of crop functionality and management needs in diverse arrangements is relevant for such redesign

Strokenteelt vraagt denkwerk

Het telen van verschillende landbouwgewassen in naast elkaar gelegen stroken, van bijvoorbeeld 3 of 6 meter breed, kan zich verheugen in een toenemende belangstelling. Afgelopen jaar is verder geëxperimenteerd en is op praktijkschaal nagegaan wat de praktische inpasbaarheid met mechanisatie is

Combination of Spatial and Temporal Diversification in European Cropping Systems

There is a lack of results on the advantages and limitations of combining different crop diversification strategies both in time and space, which makes it difficult for famers and advisers to find relevant information for the transition towards more diversified cropping systems. A network of ten field experiments (diverIMPACTS project) was built across seven European countries, covering a range of pedo-climatic conditions and different farming systems: arable and vegetable systems under both conventional and organic management. Each field experiment tests one or several diversified cropping systems, which combine three diversification strategies with low input practices. These diversified cropping systems are compared to reference systems, which are less diversified and more dependent on external inputs. The three strategies of crop diversification are rotation, multiple cropping (growing different crop species on the same land within one growing season) and intercropping (growing different species in proximity on the same field). A diversified system includes, for example, the addition of cover crops or cash crops, such as legumes, for their expected ecosystem services, or crops for new markets (e.g hemp, lentil), the use of multiple cropping to increase productivity per year (e.g. winter barley with soybean) and intercropping (e.g. barley/pea,wheat/faba bean, oat/lupin) to increase productivity per unit of area and reduce external inputs. Expected impacts include: higher arable land productivity, diversification and increased farmer revenues through access to new markets and reduced economic risk, lower environmental impact through reduced use of pesticides, chemical fertilisers, energy and water, and improved delivery of ecosystem services, including biodiversity. The diversified cropping systems will be assessed using standardized measurements across the network and multi-criteria assessment tools. Decisions regarding the design and management of the diversified cropping systems will be recorded to support other diversification initiatives. The year 2018 is the first year of the network. This paper presents the original approach, the strategies designed in the network, and the assumptions concerning the interests to combine temporal and spatial diversification in order to improve the delivery of multiple services. This network will be a source of inspiration for other initiatives of crop diversification in Europe. The ultimate goal is to guide farmers in their transition towards more diversified cropping systems and to promote innovations by various actors at different scales (e.g. innovations regarding machinery for sowing or harvesting new sole or mixed crops, value-chains through the consolidation of new markets, new process of transformation, or adaptation of value-chains to intercropping)

Faba Bean: A Potential Intercrop In Organic Vegetable Production In A European Perspective?

Intercropping can provide ecological and yield benefits when selecting crops and management practices that balance the competition for resources. A field experiment was carried out under temperate conditions to study the effect of intercropping faba bean (Vicia faba L.) and pointed cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. capitata f. conica) on yield and plant nitrogen (N) uptake. Both crops were grown in mono cropping (MC) and intercropping systems (IC). The yield of pointed cabbage per meter row was 28% higher under IC compared to MC. The ratio between marketable yield and total yield of pointed cabbage was also higher in IC. However, faba bean yield per meter row was reduced by 15% under IC. There was an indication of higher total N accumulation under IC followed by cabbage-MC and faba bean-MC. Soil mineral N at harvest (0-2.5 m depth) was lower in cabbage-MC, followed by IC and faba bean-MC. The intercropping system had a positive land equivalent ratio (LER) of 1.06, which points to the potential of using faba bean as an intercrop in sustainable organic vegetable production systems with higher N use efficiency. Results will be discussed in the wider perspective of several European trials on intercropping from the SureVeg-project (Strip-cropping and recycling for biodiverse and resource-efficient intensive vegetable production) and point to new knowledge for farmers wanting to implement intercropping