High-tech for green patients

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Bosch and partners develop method for diagnosing and treating diseases in plants

Stuttgart, #germany – When Dr. #helmutschomburg gazes out over fields of sugar beet and wheat at Ihinger Hof in Renningen, #germany, he sees more than just plants. Schomburg sees patients. "Yellowish leaves mean that the plant is diseased. Fertilizer won't help here – the only thing that will help is pesticides," he explains. Schomburg works at the #bosch research campus in Renningen. He is a process technology engineer and heads the publicly funded Marta project. Under Bosch's leadership, his team of researchers wants to prove that spectral cameras can be used to detect a number of plant diseases early on and treat them specifically.

A decisive factor in this process is the condition of the leaves, which are a plant's source of energy. Plants cannot develop properly if their leaves are diseased, which means that farmers then have to contend with poorer harvests. However, in an ideal scenario, the early detection and treatment of diseases will yield maximum harvests. In the future, the researchers also want to help farmers significantly reduce pesticide use by treating diseases at the right point in time. 

Every disease has a different degree of brightness

The Marta project poses a number of different challenges for the researchers involved. On the one hand, not all leaves that look sick are actually diseased – sometimes they are just in need of some water or fertilizer. On the other hand, it is not easy to diagnose a disease precisely. "Even if it is a plant disease caused by a fungal pathogen, it is very difficult to determine exactly which one, because there are up to 20 fungal diseases that affect grain alone," Schomburg says. The researchers know that leaves reflect light at varying strengths depending on their state of health. "This is why we want to use a spectral camera to analyze the proportion of light that is reflected by the leaf. In simplified terms, every plant disease has a different degree of brightness," Schomburg explains. Spectral cameras can display light composition incredibly precisely, measuring even minute differences.

In the test station field of the University of Hohenheim in Renningen, the team is doing research on sugar beet and winter wheat. Both of these agricultural crop plants can develop a range of different diseases during the course of their growth, depending on the season and local conditions. For example, dew lingers for longer in depressions, where it is shady and moist – the perfect microclimate for fungal pathogens. The researchers want to use millions of spectral images to repeatedly measure the condition of all of the plants in the field. Using this large volume of data, they want to determine what type of image information points to what disease, given the specific time and place.

„If we can treat plants locally early on, it will benefit both the environment and farmers equally" 
Dr. #helmutschomburg, process technology engineer and head of the Marta project 

Higher yields due to early detection

In a further research step, the plan is not just to detect diseases reliably at an earlystage, but also to treat them right away. In the future, especially fitted agricultural machines could carry out both steps in one operation: identifying sick plants and then spraying them with the appropriate pesticides. "If we can treat plants locally early on, it will benefit both the environment and farmers equally," Schomburg says: the precise use of pesticides not only protects healthy plants and soil, but also increases harvest yields. Schomburg is convinced that they will be able to apply this research approach to all agricultural crops in the future.

A strong partner in a joint project

Marta, which stands for s mart spr a ying, is the name that has been given to the research task "resource-efficient crop protection using a data-based, multi-scale approach toward the procedure chain: disease detection – decision-making support – need-based pesticide application." Alongside #bosch, the partners involved in the project are the University of Hohenheim and Cubert. As associated partners, Bayer's AMAZONEN-Werke and Crop Science division are providing advice. The project is being funded by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) on the basis of a resolution passed by the German Bundestag. The German Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE) is sponsoring the project within the scope of its program for the promotion of innovation. Marta began in spring 2016 and will end in spring 2019.