Researchers from the Horizon 2020 EcoStack project are urging farmers to share their yield monitor data from GPS-enabled combine harvesters. The data will be used to help researchers establish “how landscape features found just beyond the field affects variation in crop yield, and whether yield decline towards the edge of fields can be reduced by the presence of certain types of field boundaries”.
EcoStack brings together 24 partners from 11 countries with the aim of developing and supporting “ecologically, economically and socially sustainable crop production via stacking and protection of functional biodiversity”. Its work packages include one dedicated to biologically inspired tools to support functional biodiversity for pest control.
Lead by the UK’s University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, this work package is aiming to “enhance the impact of natural antagonists through biologically-inspired technologies, which will enable the pest management capacity of biological control agents (BCA) to be taken beyond the organism level.”
It says this will be achieved through “(1) generation of biopesticides from key natural antagonists of pests and pathogens (2) development of bio-inspired technologies for reducing pest fitness and enhancing BCA impact, (3) use of plant signaling molecules to enhance defence barriers, (4) assessment of the risk associated with the use of the new insect control tools and technologies.”
ENDURE partner Rothamsted Research is collecting yield data in the UK. Rothamsted researchers will use the data to assess whether flower-rich margins, hedgerows or tree lines help to improve yields. The Rothamsted Research website reports: “In return for their help, the Institute will provide farmers with an easy to interpret summary of the findings, with tips on how they might increase production.”
Helen Metcalfe, who is collating the data, told the website: “By linking the yield monitor data collected by GPS enabled combine harvesters with the presence of different landscape features, we will try to determine whether yield decline towards the edge of fields is associated with certain types of boundaries.
“Likewise, we will also identify whether features known to support pollinators and other beneficial wildlife are having a positive effect on yield in the nearest parts of the crop.”
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