Potato Review

16 POTATO REVIEW SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019 GROWER RESEARCH A grower approach to research Most crop research relies on replicated treatments in small plots and intensivemeasurements, while growers typically host experiments rather than playing active roles. Could the industry adopt amore farmer-led approach to delivering research in this sector? Lizzie Sagoo discusses. BY DR LIZZIE SAGOO PRINCIPAL SOIL SCIENTIST ADAS R EMOTE sensing is a quick and easy way of monitoring the spatial (within-field) and temporal (over time) development of potato crops. Crop sensors can be used tomeasure radiation reflected from the potato canopy, and reflectance at specific wavelengths has been shown to relate to crop growth, nitrogen content and crop stress. Sensors can be hand-held or mounted on a platform such as a tractor, drone, plane or satellite. Some potato growers are now using this technology tomeasure crop canopy cover and forecast yields using yield predictionmodels. A new European-Union-funded Interreg 2 Seas project is taking a different approach to remote sensing by investigating how it can be used to transform approaches to crop research and development. The four-year INNO-VEG project, which began in August 2018, focuses on realising the value of remote sensing in the potato and field vegetable sectors. This year, 48 field experiments, including nine on potatoes, have been set up in the UK, France, Belgium and the Netherlands to develop an overarching protocol for integrating crop-sensing data into field research methodologies. Traditional crop research relies on replicated treatments in small plots and intensive measurements. It is usually led and delivered by agronomy, consultancy or academic organisations. Consequently, farmers typically only host experiments. They do not play active roles in the research, applying the treatments or assessing their effectiveness. Moreover, this research model is expensive and budgets are limited for research on field vegetable and potato crops. The INNO-VEG project Reliable research methods are crucial to underpinning the evidence base needed to meet the challenges of sustainable intensification of field vegetable and potato production. The INNO-VEG project will evaluate the suitability of using crop-sensing data to assess treatment differences in field experiments. Where experiments are set up within a field, crop-sensing data can be collected from plot or treatment areas. Analysis of this spatial crop data may be able to wholly or partially replace traditionally labour-intensive field assessments. If the project demonstrates that crop-sensing data can be used to assess differences in crop treatments, this enables up-scaling from small plot to split-field or tramline comparisons, which can be developed further to facilitate farmer-led research. This model enables farmers to apply treatments to different areas of a field using their own farm equipment and carry out accurate measurements using high-resolution crop data. ➜