13TSB_AgriFood: Developing innovative tools to manage risks associated with improving resource efficiency and fruit quality in substrate soft fruit

在全球范围内，农业和园艺业约占所有蓝水抽取量的70%，许多作物产区的抽出率是不可持续的。未来的水安全将通过更有效地利用水或减少水的损失和浪费相结合来实现。在英国，园艺和土豆行业依靠灌溉水来提供高质量、保质期好的经济产量。然而，如果要在自然资源日益减少的背景下提供安全、健康和有营养的粮食供应，就迫切需要新的经济和环境可持续的生产方式。英国草莓产业是英国农村经济的重要组成部分，2012年价值2.25亿GB。灌溉和添加化肥(化肥)对于生产零售商和消费者所需的高质量浆果至关重要。许多种植者被建议灌溉以达到10-25%的径流，以防止在基质中积累破坏性的“盐分”。尽管过度灌溉和高化肥投入可能导致营养生长过度、疾病易感性增加、适销性低、感官质量差和货架期短，但由于缺乏适当的管理工具和作物监测系统，许多种植者不愿减少水(和化肥)投入。我们的目标是开发和提供一种新的创新技术包，该技术包利用一个‘闭环’的PID施肥控制单元以及数字和多光谱成像系统，为商业草莓种植者提供管理实践和辅助决策信息。新的GP2高级记录仪和控制器上的PID功能将用于在EMR的桌面上对种植在基质中的商业草莓品种施加持续的水分亏缺。对缺水或高ECs的生理反应的传统但密集的测量将与数字和多光谱成像方法进行比较，以确定其远程监测和检测对根区胁迫的非常早期的生理反应的潜力。重要的是要确保新的节水和施肥策略不会改变对抑制产量的白粉病的抗逆性，并将确定热成像检测接种植物非常早期感染的潜力。改进农场管理决策的新技术组合的潜力将在英国的五个商业草莓农场进行测试。GP2将使用短波无线电与每个地点的商业施肥设备进行无线连接，以便将使用EMR的PID功能开发的节水和化肥施肥策略整合到大规模草莓生产中。一个新的多探测器成像系统的组件需要监测作物在节水和化肥条件下的反应，以确定对植物水分关系、光合作用和白粉病敏感性的任何负面影响，以预测1类产量和量化浆果植物营养含量的变化。然后，原型成像系统将在商业农场进行测试，以确定其向农民提供有关作物健康和生产力的实时数据的潜力。该项目的成果将提高英国软果生产的经济和环境可持续性，提高水、肥料和杀虫剂的使用效率，改善植物健康，提高适销对路的产量，改善水果质量，减少浪费。

Globally, agriculture and horticulture accounts for approximately 70% of all blue water abstracted and abstraction rates in many crop production areas are unsustainable. Future water security will be achieved through a combination of more efficient use of water or reduction of water loss and wastage. In the UK, the horticulture and potato industries rely on irrigation water to deliver economic yields of high quality produce with good shelf-life. However, new economically and environmentally sustainable production methods are urgently needed if the provision of a safe, healthy and nutritious food supply is to be achieved against a background of dwindling natural resources. The UK strawberry industry is a vital part of the UK's rural economy, worth £225 million in 2012. Irrigation and the addition of fertilisers (fertigation) is essential to produce the high quality berries demanded by retailers and consumers. Many growers are advised to irrigate to achieve 10-25% run-off to prevent the accumulation of damaging 'salts' within the substrate. Although over-irrigation and high fertiliser inputs can lead to excessive vegetative growth, increased disease susceptibility, lower marketable yields, poor organoleptic quality and a short shelf-life, many growers are reluctant to reduce water (and fertiliser) inputs due to the lack of suitable management tools and crop monitoring systems. Our aim is to develop and deliver a new innovative technology package that utilises a 'closed loop' PID fertigation control unit and digital and multispectral imaging systems to inform management practices and aid decision-making for commercial strawberry growers. The PID function on the new GP2 Advanced Logger and Controller will be used to impose consistent water deficits on commercial strawberry varieties grown in substrate on table-tops at EMR. Traditional but intensive measurements of physiological responses to water deficits or high ECs will be compared to digital and multispectral imaging approaches to determine their potential to remotely monitor and detect very early physiological responses to rootzone stresses. It will be important to ensure that the novel water-and fertiliser saving fertigation strategy does not alter resilience to yield-depressing powdery mildew and the potential of thermal imaging to detect very early infection in inoculated plants will be determined.The potential of the novel combination of technologies to improve on-farm management decision making will be tested on five commercial strawberry farms in the UK. The GP2 will be linked wirelessly to commercial fertigation rigs at each site using shortwave radio so that the water- and fertiliser-saving fertigation strategies developed using the PID function at EMR can be integrated in to large-scale strawberry production. The components of a novel multi-detector imaging system needed to monitor crop responses under the water- and fertiliser saving regimes to identify any negative effects on plant water relations, photosynthetic performance and powdery mildew susceptibility, to predict Class 1 yields and quantify changes in berry phytonutrient content will be identified. The prototype imaging system will then be tested on commercial farms to determine its potential to provide real-time data to farmers on crop health and productivity. The outputs from this project will improve the economic and environmental sustainability of UK soft fruit production by delivering greater water, fertiliser and pesticide use efficiencies, improved plant health, higher marketable yields, better fruit quality and a reduction in waste.