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，农业和园艺约占所有蓝水提取量的70%，许多作物生产区的提取率是不可持续的。未来的水安全将通过更有效地用水或减少水的损失和浪费来实现。在英国，园艺和马铃薯产业依靠灌溉水来提供具有良好保质期的高品质农产品的经济产量。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上可持续的生产方法。英国草莓产业是英国农村经济的重要组成部分，2012年价值2.25亿英镑。灌溉和添加肥料（灌溉施肥）对于生产零售商和消费者所需的高品质浆果至关重要。许多种植者被建议灌溉，以达到10-25%的径流，以防止有害的“盐”在基质中的积累。虽然过度灌溉和高化肥投入会导致过度营养生长、增加疾病易感性、降低可销售产量、感官质量差和保质期短，但由于缺乏合适的管理工具和作物监测系统，许多种植者不愿意减少水（和化肥）投入。我们的目标是开发和提供一个新的创新技术包，利用“闭环”PID施肥控制单元和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。新的GP 2高级记录仪和控制器上的PID功能将用于在EMR的桌面上的基质中种植的商业草莓品种上施加一致的水分亏缺。传统的，但密集的测量生理响应缺水或高EC将比较数字和多光谱成像方法，以确定其潜在的远程监测和检测非常早期的生理反应根区应力。这将是重要的，以确保新的节水和节肥灌溉施肥策略不会改变产量抑制白粉病和潜在的热成像检测接种plants. The潜在的非常早期的感染，以提高农场管理决策的新技术组合将在英国的五个商业草莓农场进行测试。GP 2将使用短波无线电与每个站点的商业灌溉施肥设备无线连接，以便使用EMR的PID功能开发的节水和节肥灌溉施肥策略可以集成到大规模草莓生产中。将确定一种新型多探测器成像系统的组成部分，该系统用于监测节水和节肥制度下的作物反应，以确定对植物水分关系、光合性能和白粉病易感性的任何负面影响，预测1级产量并量化浆果植物营养素含量的变化。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作物健康和生产力实时数据的潜力。该项目的产出将提高英国软果生产的经济和环境可持续性，提高水、肥料和农药的使用效率，改善植物健康，提高市场产量，提高水果质量，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.