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CHAP Launches CropMonitor Pro – A New Digital Service For Predicting Crop Pest and Disease Risks
CHAP is delighted to announce the launch of a new digital service – Crop Monitor Pro. It is designed to help growers and agronomists predict the likelihood of pest and disease outbreaks on their farm
CHAP is delighted to announce the launch of a new digital service – Crop Monitor Pro. It is designed to help growers and agronomists predict the likelihood of pest and disease outbreaks on their farm.
CropMonitor Pro extends the DEFRA funded, long-standing regional risk evaluation service (Crop Monitor) which was first launched in 2003 by Fera Science Limited (Fera). CropMonitor Pro is a significant advancement on that service by providing field-level risk prediction for a range of pests and diseases affecting winter wheat, winter oilseed rape, and potatoes.
The CropMonitor Pro decision support service is a collaboration between CHAP and Fera and has been in development since 2017. It has been funded by IUK as part of the UK Agri-tech Strategy.
Analytical tools are becoming increasingly popular for growers. Retailers, agrochemical companies, and government are all looking to better predict the risk of pest and disease outbreaks to mitigate against supply chain shortages, predict sales, and encourage environmental stewardship. For the grower, a better understanding of the level of pest and disease risk can ensure pesticides are only applied when required. This will not only offer immediate savings on both chemical applications and operational expenditure but will also reduce the threat of resistance against an increasingly limited arsenal of available crop protection products.
CropMonitor Pro estimates infection risk by analyzing the complex relationship between weather, crop growth stage, management practices, and disease or pest characteristics. It uses a simple traffic light system to show crop susceptibility and suggests optimum times to spray – and when to avoid spraying – for up to four days ahead with up to 85% accuracy.
The system benefits from almost 20 years of historical winter wheat disease data: models which could be validated against this dataset were shown to have a false negative rate of less than 15%. CHAP CEO Fraser Black said: “Developing tools to support the sustainable use of pesticides is critical not only to improve the bottom line of our growers but also to protect our environment and halt the rapid rise of pesticide resistance emerging in the UK. CropMonitor Pro will deliver real financial benefits to growers and agronomists while also protecting the environment.”
Fera CEO Dr. Andrew Swift said: “After several years of development work, we are excited to launch the CropMonitor Pro service with CHAP. It is our hope that CropMonitor Pro becomes a vital tool for the industry to improve profitability while helping to protect our natural ecosystems.”
The system launched on 14th September for growers and agronomists and will be available directly through www.cropmonitor.co.uk on a subscription basis.*
About Crop Health and Protection (CHAP)
Crop Health and Protection (CHAP), funded by Innovate UK, is one of four UK Agri-Tech Centres. CHAP’s vision is for the UK to be a global leader in the development of applied Agri-Technologies, to help secure our future by nourishing a growing population sustainably while delivering economic, environmental, and health benefits to society.
CHAP acts as a unique, independent nexus between the UK government, researchers, and industry, building innovation networks to identify and accelerate the development of cutting-edge solutions to drive incremental, transformative, and disruptive changes in sustainable crop productivity.
Website: chap-solutions.co.uk/
For further information about the project contact:
Chris Delf: chris.delf@chap-solutions.co.uk
Tel: +44 (0)7732 684 786
Twitter: @CHAP_Enquiries
Fera Science Limited, formerly the Food and Environment Research Agency, is a joint private/public sector venture between Capita plc and Defra. Using original thinking applied to support sustainable global food security our vision is to support our partners to respond to the challenges ahead through original thinking and world-class science. Fera is a leading supplier of scientific solutions, evidence, and advice across the agri-food supply chain. Employing more than 350 scientists, Fera analyses over 90,000 samples and publishes over 100 peer-reviewed scientific papers per year. It turns expertise and innovation into ways to support and develop a sustainable food chain, a healthy natural environment, and to protect the global community from biological and chemical risks.
Website: fera.co.uk
For further information about the project contact:
Judith Turner: Judith.turner@fera.co.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1904 462200
"Vertical Farming Is Not The Answer For All of Humanity's Woes"
When people talk about vertical farming, they often focus on what it gets right: saving water compared to traditional agriculture, providing communities with safe, fresh, healthy and locally-grown food, etc
On the second day of the Vertical Farming World Congress, the speakers really got to the meat of the matter (or should that be to the leafy greens of the matter?). The day was opened with three presentations on market opportunities in the industry, given by Ian Cox of Innovate UK, Christine Zimmermann-Loessl, Chairwoman of the Association for Vertical Farming, and Henry Gordon-Smith, Founder and CEO of Agritecture.
Challenges and opportunities
When people talk about vertical farming, they often focus on what it gets right: saving water compared to traditional agriculture, providing communities with safe, fresh, healthy and locally-grown food, etc. In order to get the complete picture, however, it's also important to look at potential downsides. Ian, in his presentation, didn't shy away from discussing those.
He mentioned the high price of real estate in urban location as one of the potential obstacles to vertical farming. Critics also often argue that vertical farms are energy-intensive; however, Ian notes, there are many different models in vertical farming, and not all of them use lighting. Still, energy is important to the success of a vertical farm, and it is crucial that continuity of power is guaranteed. Finally, not all crops can be grown in vertical farms - the majority is herbs and leafy greens, which grow fast, command a price premium and do not need much light. According to Ian, "more fruits, vegetables, pulses and ground fruits need to be produced in vertical farms."
There are, fortunately, also lots of opportunities in vertical farming - Ian points to innovations in sensors, automation, and new crops being developed as some examples. One of these success stories backed by InnovateUK through CHAP, is GelPonics.
Vertical farming: part of the solution
Christine Zimmermann-Loessl provided an overview of the work of the Association for Vertical Farming. In her presentation, she highlighted the need for agriculture to be more environmentally friendly. In order to achieve this next level, "cooperation of science and industry is important", she said.
With humankind reaching the planetary boundaries, Christine argues, this is particularly important. And while land is scarce, vertical farming alone won't solve this problem. "It will be a part of the solution", she said. For more on Christine's views on vertical farming, check out this HortiDaily interview.
Resilient cities
The last speaker in the day's morning session, Henry Gordon-Smith, spoke about the city of the future, which according to him should be shaped by data-driven scenario planning. He showed how in the past, even a dense urban area like Manhattan had local agriculture. Throughout history, cities always needed to have the resources to make them thrive.
At some point in recent history, that changed, with the focus shifting to heavy urbanization. "One of the cons now is that cities are less resilient". Henry takes Ontario as an example - it used to be an exporter of food, but with unchecked urban development in Toronto, the area actually turned into a net importer of food, making it less resilient. He then went on to highlight some of the solutions Agritecture can offer for these issues.
Image credit: Agritecture
Selecting the best technology and crops
Another session that day focused on choosing the right crops and technology for one's vertical farm, featuring insights from James Lloyd-Jones, Founder and Managing Director of Jones Food Company; David Rosenberg, Founder and CEO of AeroFarms; David Farquhar, CEO of Intelligent Growth Solutions; and Mike Zelkind, Co-founder and CEO of 80 Acres Farms.
James has a background in property and renewable energy - two fields that are related to the vertical farming sector, but not to agriculture as such. Still, James heads one of the largest vertical farms in the world - this fits into a trend that Henry Gordon-Smith also highlighted, where people get into the industry without necessarily having a background in agriculture.
For James, that meant that he had to look for talent to join the team, and he mainly used local, British talent for that. "It's important to build a strong brand to attract strong talent with the right attitude", he emphasized.
An inside view of Jones Food Company
And the growth for Jones Food Company doesn't stop there. At the end of the presentation, James unveiled his plans for the future: by the end of 2021, two new farms will be built in the UK, with an area of 30,000 m2. In addition, the company will continue to scout for talent, and in the first quarter of 2021, they are planning to launch a new retail brand.
"Vertical integration is key"
Next up was David Rosenberg, who introduced his company AeroFarms and the way they work. Having been in business since 2004, they've built ten vertical farms to date, and they're in the process of building one that's twice as large as the biggest one in the world.
David began his presentation by stressing that there's a place for all farms. "Vertical farming is not the answer for all of humanity's woes, not by a long shot. For some crops and for some places in the world, open field or greenhouse farming is the better alternative." For other places and crops, vertical farming is the better alternative. "And those alternatives are going to become more and more as vertical farming reduces capital costs and operating costs," David believes.
AeroFarms
When it comes to choosing new crops, David notes that what works as a small farm doesn't necessarily translate to a big farm. That's why at AeroFarms, they go through three stages when making this decision:
Research & Development: Understand the plant science to improve plant quality and yield
Pilot: Improve how to grow plants mechanically with the right growing system
Commercialization: Solve agricultural problems through collaborations with other industry leaders
This doesn't just apply to crops, by the way - this way of working is just as important when it comes to choosing the right tech. "We pride ourselves in not re-inventing the wheel in automation", David says. "If someone has a better mousetrap, we'll use that. This is a hard business, and to be really good at it, vertical integration is key."
He also stressed the importance of sanitation in the industry, saying it's bad to cut corners there. "I hope we're diligent about that and processes around food safety. After all, we're talking about people's lives here."
And like James, David also had some news to share about the company's future plans. They're currently building what they say is the world's largest R&D indoor vertical farm, as part of an investment of $100 million by the Abu Dhabi Investment Office. Phase 1 of that project is slated to be operational in late Q1 2021.
3-E and 5-D
David Farquhar was up next to talk about the way they do things at Scottish vertical farming company Intelligent Growth Solutions (IGS). "IGS was founded by a farmer, which is why we focus so much on getting crop production perfect", he explains. The way they work is they basically take a traditional open field, cut it up into pieces and stack the pieces on top of each other in towers.
Of course, things do get a bit more complicated with all the tech added into the mix. At IGS, they call it Total Control Environment Agriculture (TCEA). They cultivate their crops 100% IOT-enabled, making use of cloud computing in an Intelligent Grid that was originally for lighting, but can also be used for other links in the chain, including the retail stage.
David then went on to share the philosophy behind all this high tech. First of all, there's the 3-E targets: Excellent quality produce, Economic competitiveness, and Environmentally friendly. In order to achieve these high standards, IGS makes use of the 5-D way of working.
Replicating real weather conditions is an important aspect of the way they work at IGS, and they see weather as three-dimensional (3-D): there's the sun, wind and rain. Of course, David explains, each of these have multiple varieties (between eight and ten each), and each of these variables has almost infinite values. Take light, for instance, which comes in an almost infinite spectrum of colors. David compared it to paying a visit to the hardware store when you want to repaint your bathroom: the array of available colors is dazzling.
Time is also an important factor, it's the fourth dimension in the 5-D equation. At IGS, they give the crop what it needs at each stage in its life cycle, from darker and humid conditions in the germination stage, to a lighter environment later on in the crop life cycle.
And finally, there's the dimension of space: each shelf in an IGS tower is its own microclimate - the temperature can differ quite a bit between two of those microclimates, even though they're only 30 cm apart. That way, they can grow a wide variety of crops in a single tower. "Whatever we're growing, we want to replicate something that's as close to nature as possible."
An IGS facility under construction
"Pay the farmer, not the doctor"
Mike Zelkind of 80 Acres Farms focused less on technology in his presentation - he put the spotlight on the consumer: what do they want? As Mike highlighted, consumers are looking for health and nutrition, flavor and freshness, sustainably-grown products, and trust and transparency.
What they're being offered in the fresh produce market, however, is all about price - it's what Mike calls the '10 cents less mentality'. "There's a race to the bottom, because growers don't believe their produce is worth 10 cents more. The whole category has been commoditized, but produce shouldn't be a commodity." Mike believes that vertical farming can bridge the gap to what the consumer wants, and thus stop this race to the bottom.
To do this, it's important for vertical farmers to understand how to do business. One way to contribute to the advancement of the industry, is by forming true partnerships and ego-less collaboration, Mike argues. "That's why years ago we started looking for partners willing to play by the same rules, so we formed Infinite Acres with Priva and Ocado."
In addition to partnerships, data also plays a big role in vertical farming - both in terms of plant science and predicting customer demand. At 80 Acres Farms, they develop machine learning models to allow them to understand their customers' shopping trends and forecast future demand.
One trend they are looking to reverse is that of increased spending on healthcare and decreased spending on food, as the graph below illustrates. "Your grandparents spent more on food and less on healthcare", Mike says, adding that's it's time to reverse this trend - things like COVID-19 have highlighted the need to focus more on preventative care through healthy eating, like people did in the past. As Mike puts it: "Pay the farmer, not the doctor."
The Vertical Farming World Congress, organized by Zenith Global, is held online September 22-24. We'll post updates from the virtual conference floor in the coming days and weeks, so watch this space for more like this.
Publication date: Thu 24 Sep 2020
Author: Jan Jacob Mekes
© HortiDaily.com
UAE Agricultural Firm Uses Technology To Help With Food Security
Smart Acres aims to support the UAE’s food security program by using high-tech vertical farming to produce approximately 8,000 kilograms of lettuce per cycle
KATERYNA KADABASHY
July 13, 2020 | DUBAI
Smart Acres aims to support the UAE’s food security program by using high-tech vertical farming to produce approximately 8,000 kilograms of lettuce per cycle.“
In the expansion phase, we will have 78 modules, which comes to a total of 88,320 pots. Each lettuce, for example, will weigh 100 grams. So, that is approximately 8,000 kilograms of crops per cycle,” the company’s CEO Abdulla Al-Kaabi told Arab News.
The vertical farm — currently in the proof-of-concept stage — is expected to launch in the third quarter of 2020, producing 12 cycles of crops annually and expanding from Abu Dhabi to the rest of the country. In this type of farming, plants are stocked vertically, providing more produce per area and resembling something similar to the green walls sometimes seen in malls.
Smart Acres collaborated with South Korean vertical farming technology n.thing in their farming processes. (Supplied)
The company collaborated with South Korean vertical farming technology n.thing to employ the Internet of Things in their farming so as to efficiently use water and monitor humidity, temperature, and nutrients.“
Vertical farms, in general, save over 90 percent of water compared to traditional farming methods. There is constant water flow across all the little pots, and the water is filled with all the nutrients necessary for the plant to grow,” Lead Project Manager Aphisith Joe Phongsavanh said.
The high-tech design of the farm allows Smart Acres to produce clean crops without any pesticides and with minimal intervention.“
Since we are growing our crops in a 100 percent closed environment, we don’t have to use pesticides at all. That’s exactly what we mean by clean food: non-adulterated food products that go through minimal processing,” Phongsavanh said.
However, this closed environment in which the plants grow requires staff and visitors to wear protective gear before entering the premises in order to preserve the sterility of the area.“
It is almost like going into a very high-tech factory. You have to wear lab coats and go through an air shower, where one door is closed and the other door only opens after 10 seconds of disinfection,” Director of Smart Acres Sean Lea said.
Currently, the company does not have any investors, but Al-Kaabi said that the expansion phase “of course will require an investment,” expected to cost around AED16.7 million ($4.5 million).
It will not just include a larger number of crops, but also a research and development center with a vision to start cultivating baby spinach, mature spinach, baby arugula, strawberries, and potato seeds.
Earlier in July, Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan visited some local farms and met with agricultural entrepreneurs.“
I was pleased to meet some of the UAE’s aspiring agricultural entrepreneurs who are pioneering sustainable and resilient farming practices using modern technology,” Al-Nahyan tweeted.
The UAE is pushing for local production of crops and livestock.
According to Khaleej Times, the Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority provided over $174 million to “138,000 families, 30,632 breeders and farmers, and 259 small-scale producers and commercial animal farms in Abu Dhabi” to support the industry in June.
Lead Photo: Smart Acres’ vertical farming technology enables it to produce approximately 8 tons of lettuce per cropping cycle. (Supplied)
New Growcer Hydroponic System Will Allow Sheshegwaning to grow Fresh Produce For Residents At Any Time of The Year
It may only be a sea container at this time, but soon Sheshegwaning First Nation (on Manitoulin Island in Ontario, Canada) will be able to grow fresh produce on a year-round basis in this unit and build food security for the community
By Tom Sasvari
July 3, 2020
New Growcer hydroponic system will allow Sheshegwaning to grow fresh produce for residents at any time of the year
SHESHEGWANING – It may only be a sea container at this time, but soon Sheshegwaning First Nation will be able to grow fresh produce on a year-round basis in this unit and build food security for the community.
“We took delivery of the Growcer self-contained hydroponic system,” stated Sheshegwaning Chief Dean Roy last Thursday. “With this project, we will be able to provide some food security as we will be able to produce fresh produce and food year-round here. With COVID-19 there have been times we haven’t been able to get fresh produce as readily as we want from neighboring grocery stores.”
He pointed out, “Growcer is a self-contained modular hydroponic system. We just have to hook up services for hydro and water and will have a representative of Growcer on hand soon to provide training on how to use the system to grow the produce here locally.”
“We should be able to produce 500 heads of fresh produce such as different lettuce weekly, year-round,” said Chief Roy. “I think we will be starting with romaine lettuce and other leaf lettuces, red kale, basil and parsley and we will be able to grow strawberries, for example, in the winter with this system.”
“We took delivery of a sea container last week for the Growcer system,” said April Folz, economic development officer for Sheshegwaning, this past Monday. “The week of July 13 Growcer company representatives will be on hand to provide training. After that, we will be up and running.”
Ms. Folz explained, “we’re going to be growing green products such as romaine lettuce, spinach, bok choy, basil, mint, and dill. And once we get going we will want to get into growing other different greens and produce.” She noted, “we were having a hard time getting fresh greens in local stores, but with this system in place, this will be available at all times. Local residents won’t have to travel to the nearest grocery store.”
Ms. Folz said, “we’re hoping to be able to provide a subscription box for residents, where for say $10 they will be able to get five heads of fresh greens at a time. The hydroponic system will allow for 450 heads of produce to be grown each week.”
“Growcer outfits everything that is needed in the sea containers, and there will be a desk for a systems manager to work at and the actual green area where the seeds are planted and the produce is grown,” said Ms. Folz. With this new system in place, one full-time person will be hired as well as two part-time casual positions will be created.
Chief Roy noted the community currently has a job posting for a systems manager.
Ms. Folz added, “we have a community logo/branding competition for a name for this program here and are hoping to get local input on a name. We will be taking input and submissions until July 15.”