KWS tests innovative robotic systems for weed control in sugar beets

The demand for more sustainability in agriculture or the tightening of the regulatory conditions for pesticides: The challenges of a sustainable control of weeds by robots are increasingly becoming the focus of these challenges. Different manufacturers have specialized in developing different weed control systems for sugar beets. In field trials, KWS SAAT SE & Co. KGaA plans to compare the performance of these innovative systems with conventional methods next year. Cooperation partners who accompany these investigations are the University of Göttingen, Department of Agricultural Technology, and the Institute for Sugar Beet Research (IFZ).

 

Field robots that are able to distinguish sugar beet from weeds because they are either equipped with cameras or already digitally map the location of the seed during sowing. Also possible are mechanical weed control or high-precision and selective spraying of weeds with pesticides: The solutions that are currently being developed are extremely diverse. But what are the advantages of the different systems, what influence do they have on the agronomic characteristics of varieties? The series of experiments next year should provide answers to these questions and bring the various interest groups closer together. "As a plant breeding company, we do not just see our job as providing world-class seed. We face up to the current challenges in agriculture and provide advice to farmers as a partner ", explains Dr. med. Stefan Meldau as project manager at KWS. "With our on-the-field practice comparisons, next year we want to introduce new and sustainable sugar beet weed control solutions and encourage the exchange and collaboration of robotics manufacturers, breeding companies and farmers." Innovative solutions are both conventional and ecological Agriculture is in demand. In organic sugar beet farming in particular, manual weed control costs are expensive each year, and it is difficult for many farmers to find sufficient seasonal forces to remove the weeds in the field using a hand picker. "KWS speaks here from personal experience", so Meldau. "We know the challenges in the conventional field and in organic farming alike. Our goal is to make experience from both areas available to all and profitable for both conventional and organic farming. "

 

How important a focused and forward-looking commitment to the sugarbeet is Peter Hofmann, responsible board member at KWS for the sugarbeet segment. "We continue to invest in the future viability of sugar beet - by providing more and more efficient varieties, and also by engaging in new technologies. I am convinced that innovative robotic systems can make an important contribution to the control of weeds in sugar beet in the long term, "says Hofmann.

 

The following companies are currently participating in the test series: Farmdroid, Bosch Deepfield Robotics, F. Poulsen Engineering