EUREKA project results in new model for growing plants
UK and Dutch researchers have combined computer science, biochemistry and horticulture to create a more effective model for monitoring plant behaviour and growing conditions. The project was supported by EUREKA. The tool will enable farmers to make better use of resources, improve crop management, and ultimately produce cheaper and better quality food. Currently experiments with irrigation, spraying, temperature and nutrients - all intended to optimise plant care - are only possible in real time. 'We wanted to model how plants grow to let farmers see what is happening in a more user-friendly and advantageous way,' says Janneke Hadders of Dutch partner Dacom Plant-Service. 'Our approach made it possible for the first time to integrate the behaviour and three-dimensional form on a plant component level,' adds project coordinator Lubo Jankovic of InteSys. Plants interact in order to compete for internal and external resources. In this study, scientists monitored the growth of chrysanthemums - a flower that is easy to grow in greenhouses, where farms can control the conditions. Two parameters were selected: temperature and radiation. The study resulted in a three-dimensional model of a virtual plant. Entering different parameters affects the plant in different ways. Farmers would therefore be able to investigate what the optimum temperature would be, for example, before growing plants. The next stage is to apply the model to open-air crops, particularly potatoes and sugar beet. 'We are already working on this [...] and expect to have the results within one or two years,' says Ms Hadders.
Countries
Netherlands, United Kingdom