BYAM (Berry Yield And Management)

世界资源研究所的数据显示，三分之一的粮食被浪费，这解释了全球每年8%的温室气体排放和9400亿美元的经济损失。该项目将专注于减少草莓生产中的浪费(平均浪费9%，全球约10亿美元)，但开发的方法也适用于其他水果作物。采摘的水果可能会被浪费，要么是因为它有缺陷，要么是因为市场状况--通常是因为天气驱动的生产高峰导致供应过剩。种植者试图通过调查作物来管理这两种废物：(I)确定生产力下降的原因(疾病、虫害、小气候变化等)。并因此采取纠正措施和(Ii)预测并因此更好地管理未来产量变化的影响。目前的最佳实践需要经验丰富的收获经理对作物(通常分布在许多不同的田地)进行漫步，并尝试对每一块田地的作物健康和潜在产量进行主观视觉评估。该项目将通过使用现有的软水果采摘机器人来改进产量监测和预测，以获得关于作物状况的更丰富的数据。更密集的调查覆盖范围将有助于开发更准确的长期产量预测模型。另一个好处是一种创新的自动产量监测系统，该系统对生产力的微小变化足够敏感，为种植者提供疾病和其他浪费原因的早期预警。该项目将由三家特别创新的英国企业实施：Dogtest Technologies是最先进的软水果采摘机器人的开发商，Fresh4cast是产量预测工具供应的市场领先者，Hugh Lowe Farm是一家广受尊敬的大型英国浆果生产商，也是英国最大的软水果合作社Berry Garens的有影响力的成员。在这个项目成功完成后，财团合作伙伴将向市场推出一种产量监测/预测解决方案，与目前的技术水平相比，它的阶跃变化性能有所提高。这将使全球软果生产商受益，最初是草莓生产商，后来是其他作物的生产商。

World Resources Institute figures suggest that a third of all food produced is wasted, explaining 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions and $940B economic losses per year. This project will focus on waste reduction in strawberry production (average waste 9%, about $1B globally) but the approaches developed will be applicable to other fruit crops too.Picked fruit may be wasted either because it is defective or because it cannot be sold due to market conditions - typically because weather-driven production peaks result in oversupply. Growers try to manage both kinds of waste by surveying the crop (i) to identify causes of lost productivity (diseases, pests, microclimate changes, etc.) and therefore take corrective action and (ii) to predict and therefore better manage the impacts of future yield variation. Current best practice requires experienced harvest managers to 'walk' the crop (often spread over many disparate fields) and attempt a subjective visual assessment of crop health and potential yield for each field.This project will improve yield monitoring and forecasting by using existing soft fruit picking robots to obtain much richer data about the condition of the crop. Denser survey coverage will facilitate the development of more accurate long-range yield forecasting models. Another benefit will be an innovative automatic yield monitoring system sensitive enough to small changes in productivity to provide growers with earlier warning of disease and other causes of waste.This project will be implemented by three exceptionally innovative UK businesses: Dogtooth Technologies, developer of the state-of-the-art soft fruit picking robot, Fresh4cast market leader in the supply of yield forecasting tools, and Hugh Lowe Farms, a widely respected and large UK producer of berry fruits and influential member of the UK's largest soft fruit cooperative Berry Gardens.Following successful completion of this project, the consortium partners will bring to market a yield monitoring/forecasting solution giving step-change performance increase compared to the current state of the art. This will benefit soft fruit producers globally, initially strawberry producers and later producers of other crops.