Award details

Developing a decision support system to improve crop management, yield forecasting and resource use efficiency in UK soft fruit production

Reference	BB/M027317/1
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Dr Mark Else
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors	Dr Eleftheria Stavridou
Institution	East Malling Research
Department	Science
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	371,029
Status	Completed
Type	Research Grant
Start date	01/06/2015
End date	31/01/2016
Duration	8 months

Abstract

The UK soft fruit industry has invested heavily in new technologies and marketable yields have increased 3-fold in recent years, but further increases are possible if crop agronomy is optimised. However, 33% of all harvested fruit is wasted each year, due to disorders such as rots, bruising and a poor shelf-life that are exacerbated in changeable weather. A 30% reduction in soft fruit waste would stem UK imports and generate extra income for growers. To achieve this, we will develop a Decision Support System that will enable growers to improve decision making and reduce the impact of changeable weather on crop yield and quality. Growers, retailers and consumers will benefit from more accurate yield forecasts leading to better pricing, greater resource use efficiency leading to cost savings and improved environmental performance, lower waste during production leading to increased tonnage to sell, improved consistency of supply of high quality fresh fruit with an assured shelf-life leading to reduced wastage in store.

Summary

The UK soft fruit industry is a vital part of the UK's rural economy with annual sales of strawberries and raspberries of 111 Kt, worth c. £452M at retail sales value. The soft fruit sector has invested heavily in the development of new technology and higher-yielding varieties over the last 15 years and strawberry Class 1 yield/ha has risen from 8 t to 21 t (Defra). However, commercial yields of 38 t/ha are possible if crop agronomy is optimised. The yield gap is due in part to changeable environmental factors within the polytunnels, and the operational decisions made by growers in response to these variables. Over-irrigation and high fertiliser inputs during changeable weather can increase disease susceptibility, lower marketable yields and reduce organoleptic quality. Consequently, 33% of all harvested soft fruit is wasted each year, due to disorders such as rots, bruising and poor textural quality. A 30% reduction in soft fruit waste would stem UK imports and generate extra income for BGG growers of c. £5M p.a. Furthermore, inaccurate predictions of Class 1 yields by BGG growers resulted in lost revenue of £1M in just one two-week period in 2013 and improving the accuracy of yield forecasts could be expected to increase revenue by £3-4M p.a. To achieve this, the consortium will develop a Decision Support System (DSS) that will enable growers to improve operational decision making and reduce the impact of changeable weather on crop yield, quality and wastage. Growers, retailers and consumers will benefit from more accurate yield forecasts leading to better pricing, greater resource use efficiency leading to cost savings and improved environmental performance, lower waste during production leading to increased tonnage to sell, improved consistency of supply of high quality fresh fruit with an assured shelf-life leading to reduced wastage in store. The consortium has expertise in soft fruit agronomy and husbandry, crop physiology and nutrition, substrate science, food quality science, engineering, modelling, IT and meteorology, and has a strong track record of delivering and exploiting publicly-funded R&D. The consortium will: 1) develop, test and deploy innovative technological, scientific, and meteorological solutions to reduce the impact of changeable weather on yield and quality; 2) improve consistency of the supply of high quality, phytonutritious fruit with an assured shelf-life; 3) reduce pre- and post-harvest waste leading to greater profitability and resource use efficiency; 4) improve accuracy of crop yield and timing forecasts to assure higher product pricing and improved grower margins; 5) develop and deploy a DSS to help growers improve the economic and environmental sustainability of their businesses; 6) increase resilience of UK soft fruit production to the impacts of weather and climate variability. Proof-of-concept of these novel technologies will be tested in scientific experiments using proprietary varieties of strawberry and raspberry at East Malling Research (EMR). The DSS will then be deployed and developed further on BGG grower sites to quantify the potential to deliver a greater efficiency in the use of resources, improved productivity from waste reduction, and improved grower margins from more accurate yield forecasts. We anticipate revenue gains of £15-17M p. a. arising from the adoption of the outputs. The route to market will be via commercial roll-out to BGG's 60 UK soft fruit growers and overseas partners in the first instance. The DSS will be transferable to BGG's stone fruit growers, to other UK tree fruit sectors and to other protected and unprotected high-value horticultural production systems in the UK and overseas where improved farming precision is needed to advance sustainable intensification and deliver economic impact.

Impact Summary

The main economic and social benefits will be a significant boost to the economic and environmental performance of the UK's soft fruit and ancillary industries. Improved consistency of high quality fresh fruit with enhanced phytonutrient content and longer shelf-life, grown under environmentally sustainable production methods will benefit UK retailers and consumers. BerryGardens Growers Ltd will benefit from improved efficiencies during production, higher profits due to increased tonnages to sell and improved fruit quality and shelf-life potential. Delta-T Devices Ltd will benefit from a new opportunity to increase the functionality of their GP2 controller which will aid sales to commercial soft fruit growers Delta-T will benefit from a new market opportunity to improve the functionality of the GP2 controller. Eden Irrigation Consultancy Ltd will benefit from new business upgrading uManage on Netafim fertigation rigs at grower sites. Weatherquest Ltd will increase their involvement with the soft fruit industry and by extending their current range of forecasting capability they will also benefit EMR's research into improving resource use efficiency for UK perennial fruit crops. In addition, EMR's research into manipulating pre-harvest factors to increase marketable yields and fresh produce quality will benefit from the project outputs. The project consortium anticipates that the innovative technologies will also benefit the wider research and grower communities to provide substantial environmental and sociological opportunities for the UK horticultural industry. Benefits will include improved resource use efficiency, reduced pesticide use, improved yield predictions, extended shelf-life and reduced wastage on-farm and in store and improved choice of UK-sourced high quality fruit for consumers. The technologies developed will be transferable to all high value horticulture sectors and will help to improve on-farm resource use efficiencies and marketable yields. The project outputs will help to reduce the environmental impact of intensive horticultural production on groundwater availability and quality which is an increasing cause for concern in the major soft fruit growing regions and especially so in the south east. Adoption of the new technology by the horticulture industries would also help to promote public awareness of primary producers' commitment to reducing impacts on the environment as they strive to meet the challenges associated with sustainable intensification. These benefits will be delivered over a 10-year timeframe. By becoming more efficient, the industry will become more competitive in the market place and this should deliver improved values for the buyers of the product. Producing higher yields of more flavoursome fruit with an improved phytonutrient content and extended shelf-life in an environmentally sustainable way should help to stimulate increased consumption which links into the government agenda on healthy eating to combat obesity and associated diseases. The project outputs would also deliver into produce assurance schemes such as LEAF Marque and the Red Tractor Scheme and retailers' own corporate sustainability schemes. Increasing resource efficiency and economic output from the same area of land will benefit the environment and water-related ecosystem services and impact positively on the people living within the producer communities. The ratio of inputs such as water, energy, pesticides and fertilisers will be lowered if higher yields of quality product can be produced from the same area of land. The development of these innovations could have a very large economic, environmental and social impact to the UK sustainability and health agenda for parties outside of the consortium.

Committee	Research Committee B (Plants, microbes, food & sustainability)
Research Topics	Crop Science, Plant Science
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	Agri-Tech Catalyst (ATC) [2013-2015]
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

Associated awards:

BB/M027317/2 Developing a decision support system to improve crop management, yield forecasting and resource use efficiency in UK soft fruit production

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