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，造成了全球8%的温室气体排放和每年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），但开发的方法也将适用于其他水果作物。采摘的水果可能会因为有缺陷或由于市场条件无法销售而浪费-通常是因为天气导致的生产高峰导致供过于求。种植者试图通过调查作物来管理这两种废物：（i）确定生产力损失的原因（疾病，害虫，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管理人员“行走"作物（通常分布在许多不同的田地），并尝试对每个田地的作物健康状况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获得更丰富的作物状况数据，从而改善产量监测和预测。扩大调查范围将有助于开发更准确的长期产量预测模型。另一个好处是一个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，可以为种植者提供疾病和其他浪费原因的早期预警。该项目将由三家极具创新精神的英国企业实施：Dogtooth Technologies是最先进的软水果采摘机器人的开发商，Fresh 4cast是产量预测工具供应的市场领导者，Hugh Lowe Farms，一家广受尊敬的英国大型浆果生产商，也是英国最大的软果合作社Berry Gardens的有影响力的成员。该项目成功完成后，该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，该解决方案的阶跃变化性能有所提高。这将使全球软果生产商受益，最初是草莓生产者，后来是其他作物的生产者。

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.