All posts tagged: crops

Robot Dogs Patrolling Precious Crops as Food Crisis Deepens

Robot Dogs Patrolling Precious Crops as Food Crisis Deepens

Published by José Betancourt

Sign up to see the future, today Can’t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech Robot dogs are increasingly finding real life uses as guardians of sensitive sites like AI data centers, the US-Mexico border, and Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. In a dystopian turn, now they’re also guarding valuable cash crops — at least in the US, where industrial agriculture companies like Bayer are deploying robodogs to watch over hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of raw corn. According to industry publication the Fence Post, Bayer is supplementing human security patrols around its 8,000 acre Hawaiian corn farm with robotic security dogs, supplied by the tech firm Asylon. The Asylon dogs are meant to guard the company’s precious maize from vandals, wildfires, wild fauna, and other hazards around the clock. They do so with a payload of thermal cameras and electro-optical sensors, the kind used in unmanned military drones. Each robodog connects both to Bayer’s Hawaii Security Operations Centre and Alyson’s Robotic Security Operations Centre, meaning anyone trying to pull off a daring …

A friendly fungus protects crops using airborne chemicals

A friendly fungus protects crops using airborne chemicals

Published by Jenni Sidey

Farmers have long fought a quiet war against the fungi that rot crops in fields and storage sheds. Each year, these diseases destroy harvests of lettuce, beans, oilseed rape, wheat, and many other staples. The usual defense relies on synthetic fungicides, but those chemicals face rising costs, tighter rules, and growing concern about environmental harm. Now, new research suggests that help may come from an unexpected ally already living in the soil. Scientists at Rothamsted, working with partners at the Universities of Warwick and Exeter, have discovered that a common soil fungus, Trichoderma hamatum, can release natural airborne chemicals that slow or stop dangerous crop diseases. The study, published this week, shows that these invisible vapors can block the growth of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, a mold that causes severe rot in many crops. The same vapors also affect other major plant pathogens. A Fungus That Fights Back Trichoderma hamatum is not new to science. Farmers and researchers already know it as a helpful fungus that can protect plant roots and improve soil health. What surprised the …

Locust swarms may meet their match in protein-enriched crops

Locust swarms may meet their match in protein-enriched crops

Published by Jenni Sidey

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Swarms of locusts devouring a farmer’s livelihood might sound apocalyptic, but major locust infestations are a regular problem in agricultural communities around the world. These locust swarms—dense, droning packs of certain grasshopper species—can cover hundreds of square miles, and the insects consume vast amounts of vegetation and threaten global agriculture. In the western United States, a hotspot for grasshopper and cricket outbreaks, rangelands critical for livestock grazing suffer an estimated $1.2 billion in annual losses. In a study recently published in the journal Scientific Reports, scientists with Gaston Berger University in Senegal, the Global Locust Initiative at Arizona State University (ASU), and real farmers experiencing repeated outbreaks of Senegalese grasshoppers (Oedaleus senegalensis), identified a surprisingly simple strategy. Enriching soil with nitrogen, the main building block in protein, could help control the pests using their diets. Hacking the locust diet In parts of the Horn of Africa, the Arabian peninsula, and across southwest Asia, desert locusts have plagued farmers in numbers …

Temperatures as Low as Minus 30C in Ukraine Next Week May Damage Crops

Temperatures as Low as Minus 30C in Ukraine Next Week May Damage Crops

Published by Sam Flores

KYIV, Jan 29 (Reuters) – Extremely low ‌temperatures ​down to minus ‌30 degrees Celsius (minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit) will ​hit Ukraine at the beginning of next week, which ‍is very dangerous for ​winter crops, agricultural analysts and the national ​emergency ⁠service said on Thursday. A sharp drop in temperature will begin on February 1 and will affect all regions except southern Ukraine and the frosts will begin ‌to ease slightly only on February 4, the service ​said on ‌the Telegram messenger. “We ‍consider ⁠the current cold spell to be extremely dangerous for winter crops across a significant part of Ukraine,” analyst Barva Invest said on Telegram. Ukraine is a producer of winter wheat, which accounts for about 95% of the ​total Ukrainian wheat harvest. Winter wheat, which has a higher yield than spring wheat, is sown in autumn and harvested in the summer of the following year. Barva Invest noted that a combination of severe frosts and insufficient snow cover could affect crops in central, north-eastern and eastern Ukraine. Frosts will be less severe in …

Hybrid megapests evolving in Brazil are threat to crops worldwide

Hybrid megapests evolving in Brazil are threat to crops worldwide

Published by skeptic

A corn earworm (Helicoverpa zea) larva feeding on a cotton plant Debra Ferguson/Design Pics Editorial/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Two “megapests” that are already a major problem for farmers worldwide, the cotton bollworm and the corn earworm, have interbred in Brazil and swapped genes conferring resistance to pesticides. The hybrid strains that are evolving could devastate soya and other crops in Brazil and around the world if they can’t be controlled, threatening global food security. “It has the potential to be an enormous problem,” says Chris Jiggins at the University of Cambridge. In particular, many countries import soya from Brazil to feed both people and animals. “It kind of feeds the world,” says Jiggins. More than 90 per cent of the soya grown in Brazil is genetically modified Bt soya containing a built-in pesticide. If yields fall due to pests becoming resistant, it would lead to yet more increases in the price of many foods. It could also increase deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions, as farmers compensate by clearing more farmland. The corn earworm …

Smarter tomato-picking robots learn to judge each fruit before harvest

Smarter tomato-picking robots learn to judge each fruit before harvest

Published by Jenni Sidey

Tomato vines can look calm from a distance. Up close, they feel like a crowded maze. Fruit hangs in clusters. Stems twist in odd angles. Leaves hide what you need to see. For farmers facing labor shortages, that clutter has become a growing problem, because harvesting still depends heavily on human hands. Robots could help, but tomatoes are not an easy test. A machine must pick ripe fruit and leave the rest. It also needs to avoid damaging the plant. That requires more than spotting tomatoes. It requires judgment. Osaka Metropolitan University Assistant Professor Takuya Fujinaga thinks the key is teaching robots to pause and assess. Instead of asking whether a robot can grab a tomato, he wants the robot to estimate how likely a good pick will be, before it commits. Overview of definition of tomato structural components and the cultivation environment in the plant factory. (CREDIT: Smart Agricultural Technology) Why Tomato Clusters Challenge Robots Tomatoes rarely grow one by one. They often form clusters, with fruit tucked behind stems or other tomatoes. A …

Agricultural waste keeps forever chemicals out of food crops

Agricultural waste keeps forever chemicals out of food crops

Published by skeptic

Iron-fortified hemp biochar made from agricultural waste can significantly reduce the amount of forever chemicals that move from contaminated soil into food crops, according to a new study on radishes grown in PFAS-polluted soil. The team collected PFAS-contaminated sandy loam soil from a former firefighting training area in Connecticut, where long-term use of aqueous film-forming foams had left high concentrations of PFOS and related PFAS in food crops. “PFAS do not simply disappear once they reach farmland, and our results show that they can move efficiently from soil into the foods we grow,” said lead author Trung Huu Bui. “Iron fortified hemp biochar offers a promising way to trap these contaminants in the soil and reduce their entry into the food chain without sacrificing plant growth.”​ How biochars reduced PFAS levels in food crops The researchers produced biochar from hemp stems and leaves at different temperatures between 500 and 800°C, with some batches “fortified” by soaking the biomass in an iron sulfate solution before pyrolysis to create iron-rich sorption sites.​ After characterising surface area, pore …

Hoverflies: The long-overlooked insects that could save our crops

Hoverflies: The long-overlooked insects that could save our crops

Published by skeptic

  It takes Mandela Fernández-Grandon 15 minutes to train a hoverfly, a harmless wasp look-alike. The entomologist at the University of Greenwich, UK, immobilises each tiny insect in a cocoon-like holder, then releases a flowery scent near its antennae. Next comes a sugary reward, which makes the hoverfly extend its proboscis – a long, tube-like mouthpart used to drink nectar. After a couple of trials, the hoverfly reacts the moment it detects the aroma, like Pavlov’s dogs at the sound of a bell. And the hungrier it is, the faster it learns. Fernández-Grandon thinks such training could make hoverflies better pollinators, with benefits for agriculture. In fact, these long-overlooked creatures could help offset the collapse of bees, which has been widely reported in recent years and often obscures the importance of other pollinators. “They are not as cute as bees,” admits Fernández-Grandon. “They just don’t have the same publicity.” But now that we are gaining a better understanding of these incredible insects, that could be changing. Better than bees Even without training, hoverflies pollinate almost three-quarters …