The Smartomizer H3O, the SCG device and the Specialty Crops Platform have been pointed out as key enablers for the pesticides reduction in the specialty crops sector.
The European CAP Network (Common Agricultural Policy) has been recently created by the European Commission to support the design and implementation of the CAP strategic plans. This institution also optimizes the flow of information on agriculture and rural policy of the EU member states.
Dr. Lars T. Berger (Head of Technology, Fede) is part of the focus group specialized in methods of reducing the use of pesticides in pome and stone fruit production, which has published the paper “Precision Agriculture – An enabler for pesticides use reduction”. With his participation in this focus group, Dr. Berger is actively working on knowledge transfer in the field of precision spraying and digital agronomic management solutions for specialty crops.
The paper shows how the combined approaches of precision agriculture have the potential to save more than 30% in pesticides use in pome and stone fruit production. The scientific article gathers together methodologies and solutions which are currently being successfully implemented in the tasks of “sensing, surveillance and scouting”, “fusion, processing and decision making” and “field job execution”.
This paper differentiates the direct and indirect methods for the reduction in the use of pesticides. On one hand, direct methods include early detection systems, decision support systems and intelligent special crop protection equipment. On the other hand, indirect methods are those related to nutrition and irrigation.
The highlighted direct methods include Fede’s solutions (the Smartomizer H3O, the Specialty Crops Gateway-SCG and the Specialty Crops Platform-SCP) as key enablers. In addition to the solutions’ detailed description, the article contains field trials of these technologies carried out in olive (Portugal) and apple plantations (Spain and Poland), which were executed thanks to the support of the EU within the framework of the innovation and sustainability projects H3O (No. 67223), IoF 2020 (No. 731884), LIFE-F3 (LIFE18 ENV/ES/000349), agROBOfood (No. 731884) and OPTIMA (No. 773718).
Through this direct collaboration with the European CAP Network, Fede continues its work of knowledge transfer with the aim of promoting the digital transformation in agriculture. This active role is meant to increase the competitiveness, profitability and sustainability of the specialty crops sector, as well as offering real traceability and maximizing society’s food security.
The scientific paper and all the results are available at this link.