13TSB_AgriFood Developing a vision system to enhance phenotyping in apples (Pomevision)

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The UK is not self-sufficient in apples, even during the cropping season, providing only one third of our own consumptionwith the shortfall made up by imports. A large proportion of this is due to our inability to meet the stringent specification setby supermarkets for Class 1 fruit, which represents 80% of sales. Our consortium represents 20% of the apple crop in theUK; our records show that similar orchards can have outputs that vary by a factor of 2 or 3, with reject fruit going to wasteor low value processing. A significant amount of this variation is down to management practice. Our distribution membersbelieve that, by standardising best-practice orchard management, and with a strategic approach to breeding new cultivars,we could gear up our orchards to take back at least 100,000T of the imported volume.This project is designed to enhance the pace of improvement of quality and output parameters in UK apple orchardsthrough improving management practices and strategic data capture. For this, we need detailed management information,which has been sorely lacking due to the labour-intensive and subjective nature of manual checks to date. The projectdevelops a novel vision-based crop measurement technology based on the convergence between state-of-the-art costeffective image capture technology (now achievable using consumer grade cameras instead of expensive scientificinstruments) and our new image processing algorithms. These tools will be used to identify and record commerciallyrelevant phenotype traits in detail. This data can be used for yield and quality prediction and management in season, forthe optimisation of commercial yields across the UK through the transfer of 'best practice' over a longer timescale, andfinally to tie in with the recently completed sequencing of the apple genome, to identify the best markers to more effectivelybreed new elite cultivars with the best commercial (as well as biological) traits.The project objectives include the identification and optimisation of the most commercially effective traits, the developmentof an automated in-field system to regularly measure the status and development of these traits in response to stress andmanagement activities, decision support outputs and the new knowledge required to start the UK strategic developmentprogramme for new types of commercial cultivar.The consortium is led by business, in the form of Worldwide Fruit, the UK's largest apple producer and supply group, joinedby technology developers who will commercialise the novel platform technology, and supported by East Malling Research,world experts in pomology and apple cultivar development, who will set out the phenotype maps and disseminate theacademic outputs relating to genetic markers for improved cultivars. The group has the skills to research, develop,commercialise and exploit the technology in the UK, and will exploit within Europe and/or licence to other manufacturers asvolumes grow. TSB support is the catalyst needed to drive this innovation across the business-academia gap, while theexposure the scheme brings will help us to penetrate the market more quickly.Potential benefits to the UK apple growers' industry are: raising production quality (percentage within spec.) to better meetsupermarket size and uniformity specifications, saving up to £40M of wasted product; increasing the UK average croppingintensity by up to 50% through 'best practice' identification and transfer, growing capacity by a further £50M; and giving theUK the capability to strategically lead the world in the rapid development of new cultivars, shortening the introduction time by potentially up to 5 years