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Better Farming
December 2016
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57
FAR
AFIELD
Growing a crop without stepping a
foot in the field could soon be a
reality.
The Hands Free Hectare project is
expected to demonstrate the ease of
automated farming, according to
British researchers from
Harper
Adams University
and
Precision
Decisions Ltd.
Researchers will grow a cereal crop
from seeding to harvest completely
robotically, according to the universi-
ty press release.
“There is now no technological
barrier to automated field
agriculture,” says
Kit
Franklin
, lecturer of
agricultural engi-
neering at Harper
Adams. “This
project gives us
the opportunity to
prove this and
change current
public perception” about automated
farming.
The university’s engi-
neering department will
adapt equipment that is
readily available on the
market to enable
autonomous use.
The crop will be
planted in 2017 in
Shropshire County,
England.
BF
Farming from the sidelines
Farmers may soon be able to
diagnose crop diseases
as easily as taking a
picture with their
smartphones,
according to a
Penn State
University
release.
Researchers
from Penn State and
the
Swiss Federal
Institute of Technology
built a network of computers
with a 53,000-image data-
base that can accurately
identify a crop disease
using only a photo.
David Hughes
,
assistant professor of
entomology and
biology at Penn State,
says developing coun-
tries lack educational
resources for farmers and,
therefore, could benefit from
this technology to secure their yields.
In North America, crop specialists
or extension workers could use the
technology when working with
farmers. Gardeners may also be
interested in the database, Hughes
said in the release.
The database used in the study
covers 14 different crops and 26
diseases. The beta model reached an
accuracy rate of 99 per cent, when
filtering 1,000 pictures, according to
the release.
BF
Disease identificationmade easy
Operations for a first-of-its-kind
southern Australian tomato farm
began full force in October, accord-
ing to news website
Renew Economy
.
Sundrop Farms
uses both solar
power and seawater.
A concentrated solar power tower
produces Sundrop Farms’ electricity
and heat. This system also powers the
desalinization of seawater on-site. The
farm produces 15 million kg
of tomatoes annually.
“Here in Australia,
we have a long-term
commitment to R&D
and innovation and
are looking to build
future projects in this
state and around the
country,”
Philipp
Saumweber
, CEO
of the facility,
said in the
article.
The farm
cost approxi-
mately
C$201
million to
build.
BF
Australia’s one-of-a-kind tomato farm
Organic matter for drought protection
Many industry experts focus on the
development of new varieties to
address drought conditions. But, “it
might not be necessary to put all the
stress of climate adaptation and
mitigation on new varieties,” said
Adam Davis, USDA
ecologist and
University of Illinois
(U of I) associ-
ate professor, in a university release.
Rather, high organic content and
soil’s water holding capacity are also
key to maintaining yields in a
drought, according to a recent study
from the U of I and other Midwestern
institutions.
Organic content improves with
management techniques combining
no-till systems, cover crops, longer
crop rotations and the use of manure.
The study examined weather, soil
and yields from multiple locations
across Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota
and Pennsylvania. In
total, researchers
collected and
examined 15
years of
data. The
research was
published in
the journal
PLOS One
in
August.
BF
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