AgriSound: Advancing in-field pollinator detection for Net Zero Agriculture

粮食生产系统面临着用更少的资源生产更多粮食以养活不断增长的人口的压力。英国对高品质水果和蔬菜的需求很高，与2019年相比，受封锁后健康意识的推动，需求增长了约32% （EIT Food， 2020年）。需要新的创新来解决现有的生产瓶颈，提高农业产量和粮食质量，减少粮食进口。授粉是园艺生产的关键部分，它触发了植物的果实生产。超过70%的水果作物生产依赖昆虫传粉媒介（蜜蜂、食蚜蝇、黄蜂、飞蛾），但支持商业园艺生产的授粉服务是不可持续的，这是英国粮食生产的主要瓶颈。目前的做法依赖于（从欧洲大陆）进口大黄蜂或租用蜜蜂，这造成了严重的财政和生态成本。租用/购买蜜蜂的成本每年都在增长（由于蜂群崩溃和监管变化），非本地蜜蜂的田野/果园饱和会使本地传粉者挨饿，造成对单一蜜蜂类型的过度依赖，限制了当地的生物多样性。AgriSound认为，通过监测传粉媒介的活动，可以确保发现和解决环境中传粉媒介的任何缺陷（播种野花、创造新的蜜蜂栖息地或移动蜂箱），从而在正确的时间和地点实现传粉媒介的多样化组合，从而提高作物产量和质量。我们使用低成本的传感器技术，通过声音分析来监测昆虫的存在，并帮助种植者和养蜂人提供可持续的授粉和生物多样性的增强。InnovateUK之前的资助使AgriSound能够推出用于蜜蜂福利和生产力监测的监测技术，以及现场传粉器计数器（名为POLY），以及利用SEIS和EIS投资。青年创新者奖的后续资金将支持进一步的技术和商业创新，并支持农业创新公司利用上一届青年创新者奖结束时取得的早期成功（包括在COP26上的演讲）。具体而言，创新活动将集中在：*创建新的声音分析工具，以扩大POLY设备监测的昆虫类型总数；*利用从现有客户收集的数据，试验吸引高价值客户的新策略。该项目的完成将导致业务盈利能力和环境结果的逐步变化。检测新物种的算法的扩展将使最终用户对农场当前的生物多样性水平有更深入的了解，并有助于改进农场授粉策略。

Food production systems are under pressure to produce more food from less resources to feed a growing population. UK demand for high quality fruit and vegetables is high, with ~32% increase in demand vs. 2019, driven by health awareness post-lockdowns (EIT Food, 2020). New innovations are required to address existing bottlenecks to production, increase agricultural yields and food quality and reduce food imports.Pollination is a key part of horticultural production, which triggers fruit production by the plant. Over 70% fruit crops produce rely on insect pollinators (bees, hoverflies, wasps, moths), yet pollination services to support commercial horticultural production are unsustainable -- representing a major bottleneck for UK food production. Current practices rely on importing bumblebees (from mainland Europe) or renting honeybees and has serious financial and ecological costs. Costs of renting/purchasing bees costs are growing annually (due to honeybee colony collapse and regulatory changes) and saturation of fields/orchards with non-native bees can starve indigenous pollinators, creating over-reliance on single bee type and limiting local biodiversity.AgriSound believes monitoring the activity of pollinators can deliver increased crop yields and quality by ensuring that any pollinator deficits within an environment can be detected and addressed (sowing wildflowers, creating new bee habitat or moving hives around), resulting in a diverse mix of pollinators at the right place and at the right time. We use low-cost sensor technologies to monitor insect presence via sound analysis and help growers and beekeepers to deliver sustainable pollination and biodiversity enhancement.Previous funding from InnovateUK has enabled AgriSound to launch monitoring technology for honeybee welfare and productivity monitoring, as well as an in-field pollinator counter (named POLY), as well as leveraging SEIS and EIS investment. Follow-on funding from Young Innovators' Award will enable further technical and commercial innovation, as well as support AgriSound to exploit earlier successes delivered at the conclusion of the previous Young Innovators' award (including presentation at COP26).Specifically, innovation activities will focus on:* Creation of new sound analysis tools for expanding the total number of insect types monitored by the POLY device;* Trialling new strategies for attracting high value customers using data collected from existing customers.Completion of the project will lead to a step-change in business profitability and environmental outcomes. The expansion of algorithms to detect new species will generate far greater insights for end-users about current biodiversity levels on farm and help to improve on-farm pollination strategies.