| Arable
The future of targeted
weed control
‘eyeSpot’, a research project part-funded by AHDB
Horticulture, is driving innovation in weed control and
aims to reduce herbicide inputs by up to 95%.
xperts at University
of Reading,
Precision Farming
Robotics Ltd.,
Concurrent
Solutions llc and
Knight Farm Machinery Ltd. are
developing the use of a cuttingedge automated spot herbicide
ejector, which will ‘point and shoot’
metered droplets to individual
leaves of unwanted plants in row
crops. The ejector will use an
innovative imaging system to
distinguish weeds in field
vegetable crops and will evaluate
the dose of droplets required to kill
weeds at different growth stages.
Herbicide droplets will then be
accurately targeted to the leaves of
the unwanted plants. The concept
is “no herbicide applied to the
crop; none to the soil; only to the
weeds”.
The project has been developed
in response to concerns about the
E
loss of herbicides and pressure to
target pesticides better and in
lower doses. The technology will
precisely apply herbicide only to
the weeds in such a way as to
eliminate drift and spatter, while
minimising the likelihood of run-off
to soil and non-target organisms,
including the crop. By applying
droplets of a systemic, nonselective herbicide to individual
leaves, it represents a paradigm
shift in weed technology, achieving
selective weed control by
engineering rather than chemistry.
Once commercialised, the
system could reduce, by up to
95%, herbicide inputs per unit land
area. Benefits to growers are
expected to be much greater than
just economic, as labour and
energy requirements are expected
to be significantly lower than for
mechanical weed control.
Additionally, the approach aims
to address environmental issues
14 | Farming Monthly | December 2016
by cutting energy inputs and soil
moisture loss by reducing need for
mechanical weed control.
Field trials with savoy cabbages
took place in summer 2016. For
proof of concept, manually applied
droplets of glyphosate achieved
92% weed control and significantly
higher yields than the
conventionally applied preemergence herbicide,
pendimethalin. Most importantly,
yields were not significantly lower
than those in hand-weeded trial
areas and amounts of herbicide
applied per unit land area
(equivalent to 83g glyphosate per
hectare) were 94% lower than for
the pendimethalin.
Commenting on the findings so
far, Dr Alistair Murdoch, University
of Reading, who is leading the
research project, said, “This is a
pioneering project, as we are
exploring a combined engineering
and chemical solution to weed
control in field vegetables. By
accurately targeting leaf-specific
droplet applications, it is the
ultimate in precision agriculture.
The importance of the successful
findings of the project cannot be
over-stressed and it is, therefore,
particularly important that
systemic, broad-spectrum active
ingredients such as glyphosate
remain available to farmers and
growers.”
“The concept is “no herbicide
applied to the crop; none to the
soil; only to the weeds”
An automated vision-guided
droplet application system should
be ready for preliminary field trials
in 2018.
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