Details of the project EPI

Control of grain canopy differentiation and maturation time through precise growth regulator application in conjunction with ongoing satellite monitoring of crop response

01-01-2023 do 31-12-2024

3 109 699,21

EFRROW; national public funds; own funds; loan

http://satelitarnaregulacjawzrostu.pl/

The goal of the project is to develop and implement improved methods for controlling the growth of winter crops: wheat and rapeseed, using precisely dosed growth regulators to reduce losses associated with uneven grain canopy development. The project will result in improved technological and organizational innovations allowing for a more accurate recognition of grain canopy variability before application of the growth regulator, which will enable better adjustment of doses, as well as quick remote assessment of the effects of the regulator on the scale of the entire grain canopy based on an interface providing an improved vegetation index. In addition, the project also deals with an organizational innovation - a digital tool within an online platform dedicated to precision agriculture, which will support the process of planning and implementation of a large-scale field experiment and its objective and results, and allow comparison of the productivity of cultivated crops on different ag

The assumed operation will be implemented in 5 stages. Each member of the consortium will conduct a series of activities leading to the production of innovations as a result of research and development. Tasks will include the creation of a research grid, sampling, analysis of the obtained samples, verification of static hypotheses, analysis of samples needed for the preparation of maps. In addition to technological preparations, the purchase of necessary equipment and machinery will be made. Farmers will carry out field work planned under the operation. Meetings will be held within the consortium to verify progress.

The need for the implementation of the operation, is justified by the results of scientific research as defined in Article 4 paragraph 2 of the Law of July 20, 2018 Law on Higher Education and Science. International governments, scientific entities and public entities direct their activities, towards scientific research in the above-mentioned area. The assumptions of the latest strategies of the European Union, the European Green Deal, the Strategy for Sustainable Rural Development, Agriculture and Fisheries, as well as the Plan for the Countryside, are aimed at producing and implementing ways to improve the effectiveness of the treatments and measures used in agricultural production, which include growth regulators. These are agents that affect the life processes of plants, for example, through substances that have a regulatory effect on the plant, other than nutrients. They are used to accelerate many life processes of cultivated plants. The planned operation is very much in line

As a result of the operation, solutions will be developed to significantly improve the effectiveness of precision agriculture. Regulations on active substances that can be used in agriculture introduced in the European Union and the world, affect the reduction of available plant protection products including growth regulators. Fewer active substances translate into greater crop protection problems and the need for solutions that will maintain the same level of crop protection while reducing the number of agents used. There is a need to use decision support systems in crop protection, including remote sensing crop mapping systems, which will reduce the number of treatments. This is especially important given the reduction in resource use, which is one of the main challenges facing European food producers. Rapeseed is one of the most important oil-protein crops. In recent years, there has been an increase in its production in the world, which now stands at about 70 million tons, more th

The benefits of the project include rapid assessment of the effects of regulator application and its use in subsequent agronomic decisions, better vegetation indexes that allow, among other things, better separation of the effect of grain canopy soil cover and the effect of variable canopy nutrition, and the creation of a tool that allows objective evaluation of the applied dosing strategies of the regulator and other agrochemicals. The planned operation involves improving technological innovations in generating variable-dose maps of plant growth regulators. Control computers and precision guidance systems are equipment of modern sprayers. This makes it possible to significantly simplify and shorten crop protection treatments. Currently, there are solutions to control and adjust the application rate with the use of field mapping based on the NDVI index, but this is not an optimal solution - it only has a high efficiency in terms of nitrogen fertilization and not a variable regulator rate. Another innovation, an improved organizational innovation, relates to the production of indicators to correct the recognition of grain canopy parameters in terms of growth stage, biomass growth and biomass measurement with greater accuracy than in relying on NDVI. This innovation aims to support decision-making and recognition of crop parameters based on multispectral data captured from a drone and satellite. Another innovation, an improved organizational innovation, allows better management of fragments of fields with different agrotechnology and management, predicting differences due to quantitative and qualitative characteristics allowing to treat standard fields as experimental plots without losing their basic production function. The improved organizational innovation will produce an enhanced application to recognize the variation in predefined cultivation areas in order to make optimal decisions on fertilization, varieties or application of crop protection products. It is a further step relative to the produced precise profitability zones for field production or homogeneous zones within large agricultural plots. In summary, qualitative changes in innovation include: - the ability to quickly assess the effects of regulator application and use it in subsequent agronomic decisions, the creation of a tool to objectively assess the applied dosing strategies of the regulator and other agrochemicals. - better vegetation indexes, allowing, among other things, to better separate the effect of grain canopy soil cover and the effect of variable canopy nutrition, - creation of a tool that allows effective variable dosing of a growth regulator to optimize production.

Implementation of the operation will be completed with the development of a digital solution, for use by the farmer. Digitization of agricultural processes carries the potential to increase farm productivity, while affecting the sustainability of the agricultural sector both economically and ecologically. The operation includes the creation of an improved technological innovation in the form of an algorithm for producing a map of the variable application of growth regulators, and an improved organizational innovation - a tool, within a web-based platform dedicated to precision agriculture, which supports the process of planning and implementation of a large-scale field experiment, as well as objective evaluation of its results (including variants of experiments). The developed solution will be made available for use in the form of a digital software solution. By using the digital form, it will be possible to use it in a mobile way, and the cost of implementing the technology on the farm will be low. The use of the solution will allow the farmer using it to more accurately identify the variability of the grain canopy before the growth regulator treatment, based on satellite monitoring, which will enable better adjustment of doses and rapid remote evaluation of the effects of the regulator on the scale of the entire grain canopy. In addition, the improved organizational innovation, in the form of a digital solution, will allow better management of field fragments with different agrotechnology and management, predicting differences due to quantitative and qualitative characteristics allowing to treat standard fields as experimental plots without losing their basic production function. As part of the improved organizational innovation, an improved application will be created to capture the diversity of predefined cultivation areas in order to make optimal decisions regarding fertilization, varieties or the use of plant protection products. There is a further step towar

plant cultivation and horticulture