The software monitors crops, improves water and fertilizers management

Aug 30, 2012 19:51 GMT  ·  By

As a result of changing environmental conditions, agricultural practices in several regions of the world have found themselves negatively affected. Naturally, farmers and high officials are doing their best to help remedy this situation, and a new smartphone app has only recently come to their help.

Thanks to a team of scientists working with the Cambridge University and with Landmark, a company specializing in digital mapping, British farmers who are in the business of growing potatoes for Walker Crisps (i.e. a snack food manufacturer which mainly operates in the UK and in Ireland, but also in Europe) can now boost their crops simply by monitoring them by means of a smartphone app.

This newly developed software is presently undergoing field trials, but rumor has it that it is quite efficient in keeping a close eye on potato plants, meaning that it can both predict their growing patterns, and that it can inform farmers with respect to how much water and fertilizers their crops need in order to keep healthy and yield the best of harvests.

The way in which this app functions is pretty straightforward: potato leaf canopies get their pictures taken, and these pictures are later on used by the software to predict the future growing rates of these crops.

Business Green informs us that, commenting on the development of this app, Dr. David Firman explained how, “Before now, to predict their crop yields, farmers had to rely on manual measurements which were cumbersome and subject to error.”

He further elaborated on this topic, saying “This app enables farmers to more accurately forecast crop yield using digital images and modeling techniques. We are enthusiastic about this technology, which has a real potential to improve the management of potato crops.”

Given the fact that potatoes have had quite an influence on the development of human society over the years (in fact, there is an entire book written about this crop: “The History and Social Influence of the Potato”), and still play a major part in our dietary habits, it comes as good news that efforts are made to improve on our abilities to grow them.