Prediction by field
New app to predict potato harvest
The Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO) has developed a new app. That app, called watchITgrow, should predict the potato harvest per field. That reports De Tijd.
In the longer term, the goal is that the farmer can also be advised via the app. For example, when they can best fertilize, irrigate or when they have to use pesticides.
What are the first expectations?
In recent months, 350 Belgian farmers have used big data to monitor their crops. On 1.300 plots, or 8.000 hectares, the app has already helped to combat drought, heat and variability. In this way, 10% of the entire potato harvest in Belgium was monitored digitally. That is more than 400.000 tons.
According to the app, most bintjes come from Chaumont-Gistoux in Wallonia. Most fontanes must come from Kampen and Brabant, according to watchITgrow. The west and east of Flanders are performing below par due to the drought.
European Sentinel Satellites
The VITO app works via satellite images from the European Sentinel satellites. As a result, the farmer sees new images in the app every 5 days. However, this does depend on the weather, especially the amount of clouds.
The images are then linked to the data from the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium (RMI) and to the soil data. The app must also be able to calculate the return per field with this. "Existing models do not get any further than regional forecasts," Jürgen Decloedt, VITO research center, told De Tijd.
Easy to manage
The farmer can indicate his fields by means of tractor data or enter them manually. The potato varieties and planting dates can also be entered. From that moment on, dark green pixels indicate the well-growing tubers. If the fields show brown or yellow spots, then something is wrong and the farmer needs to look at the field.
In addition, watchITgrow also indicates when the humidity or temperature deviates from the long-term averages. Growers can also check whether their yield is higher or lower than that of their colleagues in the municipality.
To expand
The app does not currently provide any advice, but in the end that is the goal. "The more data, the more functionalities we can build," says Decloedt. In addition, the research institute is also considering adding rotational crops (such as wheat, barley, maize and sugar beet) to the app. "The potato harvest is the hardest to predict. Now that we've done that, we can expand to other crops."
Kimberly Baker
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