The single largest problem in agriculture today is that farmers lack a method of accurately, efficiently and swiftly evaluating plant health. In order to avoid disease related yield loss, agricultural producers use expensive and environmentally harmful pesticides. Numerous studies have linked the use of these chemicals to a myriad of social and environmental problems, ranging from decreased long term soil fertility or rapid decrease of bee populations. As a consequence, oversparying is prevalent as an important method of preventing crop diseases. Ideally, the decision of when to spray should be dependent on the highly complex interaction of a wide range of environmental and phenological factors. The problem is further strengthened by farmlands’ size and microclimate variability which could vary even within a smaller area of a few hectares. As a result, minor differences in humidity or temperature may modify the appearance and the intensity of diseases.
Due to a lack of time, information and appropriate solutions, most farmers are unable to monitor the farmland microclimates when planning their plant protection strategy and consequently are exposed to yield loss and overspraying. Since producing the highest quality crop with a maximized yield requires the real-time measurement and actionable analysis of a large number of plant-related external factors. These factors are meteorological, geological, and human-related. Measuring and processing such parameters is at the core of any decision-support system intending to streamline the production of farmlands. By doing so, it could stop superfluous use of expensive and environmentally harmful chemical agents while reducing yield loss, saving European farmers billions.
The Plant CT™ project intends to address the major challenges of plant protection directives, like cost efficiency or sustainability. The outcome of the Horizon 2020 SME Instrument project is expected to be the release and commercialization of the Plant CT™ solution, a network of compact measuring devices on cultivated areas, which arms agricultural producers with precise, individualized data and recommendations. By deploying devices at several locations it is possible to quantify agronomically important factors and to precisely determine the exact plant disease risk (and other important metrics, such as irrigation) at any particular location on a farmland.
The proof of concept is SmartVineyard™ system developed to increase production yield and reduce wasteful and expensive fungicide spraying in vineyards. Devices upload the measured data onto the server, where scientifically validated algorithms and mathematical models are applied to determine the probability of infection in a given territory. This information can be accessed by the user on any internet connected device, providing farmers with a decision support system with forecasts and alerts on diseases to assist in plant protection.
As the output of the project, a commercialisable smart agriculture system will be developed which not only increases the yield of European agricultural producers, but also promotes a more sustainable and ecologically friendly form of farming throughout the EU.
Professional agricultural producers are in seek of applying a system that helps reducing costs and increasing yield. Remote data access and farmland monitoring are also in demand by agents working lands in multiple areas.
The main advantage of the Plant CT™ system is that it is an easily deployable smart agriculture system which provides a constant source of real time actionable data that helps reduce production costs and increase yield in a user friendly, accessible way. The outcome of the project is a system of small, easily installable, compact and inexpensive precision sensors delivering easy-to-understand actionable information including highly reliable automated diagnostics.
