Potato Review

GROWER RESEARCH 18 POTATO REVIEW SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019 Methods for scienti cally robust farmer- led research have recently been developed in combinable crops like wheat. Treatments can be set up in line trials and statistically compared using yield maps from a combine harvester. e main barrier to adopting this approach is that yield mapping is not yet standard for potato crops, and is very rarely used for eld vegetable crops. However, high-resolution spatial crop imagery can be collected easily during the growing season from all crops. If this can be used as an indicator or a proxy for the nal crop output, it can also enable eld-scale research. In 2020, eld validation experiments will test the protocol developed during 2019 in the eld-scale research experiments to develop a framework for farmer-led research. e framework will then be tested in farmer- led eld experiments during 2021. Information collected from farmer groups and eld testing will be used to re ne the framework to ensure the outputs are presented in formats that are easily understandable and written in su cient detail to facilitate adoption of the farmer-led approach. As part of the project, ARVALIS – Institut du vegetal, expert in potato cropping in France, is developing its ALPHI® crop sensor to provide high-throughput phenotyping tools for potato crops. Crop phenotyping is a new way of measuring several crop traits, such as crop emergence, growth and canopy architecture, using crop sensors. ese tools are already being used in arable crop research, and the project will develop them for potato crops. E cient crop phenotyping will be particularly useful in variety testing and plant breeding programmes where researchers need to understand how the crop grows. e project’s ultimate aim is to improve crop research e ciency and give growers a methodology for carrying out research on their own farms, where they can test new approaches such as varieties, establishment techniques or fertiliser management. Lizzie Sagoo is a principal soil scientist at ADAS and the leader of the INNO- VEG project. She has specialist knowledge of soil and nutrient management and di use pollution of air and water from agricultural systems and is a member of the British Society of Soil Science. Lizzie has detailed knowledge of national fertiliser recommendation systems and precision farming techniques for improved soil and nutrient management. Her current R&D projects focus on precision farming, improved nutrient management and the environmentally sustainable recycling of organic materials to land. Lizzie presents at national and international conferences. “Reliable research methods are crucial to underpinning the evidence base needed to meet the challenges of sustainable intensification of field vegetable and potato production.” Localised data aids on-farm decision support POTATO growers could save themselves around £110/ha bymonitoring rainfall, speed and humidity in their own elds, according to a recent study in France. e study was carried out by digital farming start-up, Sencrop, and involved 1,400 growers across 80,000ha. Data from the weather stations was fed into Mileos, an agronomic model focused on preventing late blight. Fred South, Sencrop’s Business Manager, said users reported a typical three-spray reduction where they’d used the Sencrop units alongside Mileos. Mileos is now undergoing UK evaluation and validation with customers of Agri-Tech Services in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. More than 300 Sencrop units have now been installed on UK farms, adding to the 8,000 already in operation across Europe. Phil Kingsmill, of Cambridgeshire-based Spearhead International, has operations focused exclusively on potatoes and needs to grow across disparate parcels of rented land in order to achieve the necessary rotation. He uses a number of di erent weather stations, both automatic and manual, and bought a Sencrop unit after seeing it demonstrated at LAMMA, which is now his preferred monitoring app. “I can nd out with just a few swipes and pushes what happened an hour ago, how the weather’s been over the last 24 hours and the trend for the last seven days,” he said. “Having easy access to this history and data has really helped with backing up our agronomic decisions. ere’s been a number of instances where we’ve looked at the app before spraying, to check on temperatures or to ensure wind speeds are suitable.” About the author: