The options described in the TIBRE Arable Handbook provide a snapshot of some of the tools available to farmers and their advisers. Legislation as well as pressures from consumers, food retailers and distributors will ensure that industry and research organisations will continue to refine these products and to develop new technologies.
Several new technologies are developing rapidly at present, but not all have been included in the TIBRE Arable Handbook either because they are too far from the market or because their environmental advantages are not yet clear.
It is likely that relevant technologies will continue to develop rapidly, particularly where there are strong drivers for applications in other industries as well as in agriculture. The main areas that are likely to see significant developments in the next five to ten years include:
- the continued development of lower-dose and more specifically targeted pesticides
- the development and implementation of decision support systems
- the use of plants and bacteria for bioremediation and decontamination
- the development of soil nutrient sensors
- new advances in molecular biology and ecology
- the development of on-farm diagnostics and in-field sensors linked to decision support systems
- further developments in nozzle technology
- the electronic labelling of chemical inputs
- the automatic transfer of information from mobile machinery and field sensors to the farm office and adviser
- the development of improved mechanical weed control
- enhanced varietal resistance development in crop varieties based on greater understanding of genomics
- the development of second generation biofuel technology
- the assessment of carbon footprints
The continued development of lower-dose, more specifically targeted pesticides will reduce the environmental load in key areas, such as control of grass weeds, where current options are of concern due to links to water pollution. Higher specificity of action of insecticides will reduce impacts on beneficial insects. Increasingly grass weed herbicides are being recommended with adjuvants and/or safeners to improve efficacy and crop safety.
The recent changes in EU pesticide legislation, resulting in the removal of a range of pesticide active ingredients, will stimulate development of alternative technologies, particularly in minor crops. Methods of cultural control, decision support systems and plant varietal resistance will, in particular, receive a stimulus. This will be particularly important in minor crops such as vegetable brassicas, carrots and potatoes. The removal of ingredients will provide new challenges for advisers to further develop integrated strategies.
The use of plants and bacteria to bioremediate washout facilities or other contaminated areas will reduce pollution risk and lower environmental load. The use of specific fungi that attack certain weeds or fungal pathogens in the soil has been developed and is being implemented particularly for high value crops or where chemical alternatives are not available. The use of specific cover crops to bioremediate soils and reduce soil borne pathogens is being explored. Biofumigants offer some promising alternative solutions to the control of soil borne pathogens.
Developments in molecular biology and ecology are now being integrated with long-term benefits for agronomy and crop improvement. Genomics involves the use of molecular techniques for identification and functional analysis of complete or nearly complete genomic complements of genes. Crop improvements using the tools of genomics will have a significant impact on ways in which crops respond and interact with their biotic and abiotic environment. For example, research on crop characters may help to reduce weed control costs. Modifying weed-crop interactions in favour of the crop will improve yields and quality while reducing weed problems.
Progress in crop modelling has matched with advances in crop physiology, crop ecology and computing technology. Crop models have the potential to facilitate decision-making by allowing farmers and agronomists to broaden their management skills to address issues of environmental and ecological aspects of crop production. This is important for realisation of other benefits in sensing and monitoring of the environment or improvements in plant performance.
Other work of interest includes the evaluation of variety mixtures for use in distilling and bioethanol production and research on improved seed rate management. Work on plant phenotypes and growth habit could also allow reduced weed control costs.
The development of in-field sensors and plant diagnostics linked into decision support systems and the use of GPS precision applications will allow more detailed part-field solutions to problems and improved targeting of specific pests in the field and in store.
Increased fertiliser costs will stimulate growers to implement techniques to increase fertilise use efficiency. Advances in both availability and development of precision farming techniques and diagnostics will be stimulated, by what appear to be long term changes in input cost structures.
Although soil nutrient sensors are some way off, prototypes are being developed to collect soil information to assist in fertiliser rate evaluation. Reflectance of the soil relates to corresponding nutrient contents (e.g. P, K, Ca, and Mg) along with pH and soil organic matter content. This could be useful in the development of a soil nutrient sensor for site-specific crop management. This will help to maximise efficiency of use of inputs and reduce nutrients run off and leaching.
Automated product labelling is well established in all parts of the retail sector and is mainly based on bar codes. However, such printed codes are unlikely to be sufficiently robust for reliable operation in physically hostile agricultural environments - for example, wet or dusty conditions. On the other hand, the development of the electronic tag (Radio Frequency Identification Device - RFID) gives important capabilities that can help with record keeping and traceability in the agricultural industry. The development of such tags for use in situations such as retail outlets and luggage handling facilities at airports, gives advantages of low volume and hence a low unit cost. The use of electronic labels on pesticide and fertiliser packaging will provide field equipment with information on the material being applied. This will enable:
- the automatic generation of application records - operation with control systems using field location equipment such as GPS will enable detailed records of inputs at both the field scale and within individual fields;
- the more precise control of application machinery to improve targeting of inputs based on both the target and the material to be applied;
- automatic inventory control for on-farm stores, particularly since tags can be both read and have data written to them.
Important developments are also likely in the handling of information on arable farms. Sophisticated equipment on field machinery, such as that used for the collection of data for yield mapping, is now well established. However, the data transfer from machine to the farm office normally involves manually doing this using a device such as a "smart card". The development of automated data transfer systems, for example based on mobile telephone technology, will enable field machinery to communicate automatically with the farm office with the minimum need for manual intervention. Associated developments are likely to:
- improve the compatibility of different components within the farming system particularly in the area of electronic communication;
- simplify the interface with the users so that operation of both hardware and software is less complex.
There should also be further developments in the use of sensing systems and the ways in which the outputs from sensors can be interpreted. Systems using more than one method of sensing are likely to be developed for monitoring factors such as crop condition.
Developments in the financial support systems for arable agriculture may mean that it is important for farmers to have information on the inputs, particularly level of machine use, associated with different parts of a field. This could be provided by recording systems that are currently under development. This information, together with information from yield maps, will enable management decisions about cropping plans to be made in a way that maximises both financial return and environmental benefit.
