The AGROS programme is a collaboration between Wageningen University & Research (WUR) and 26 private partners, with funding provided by two of the Top Sectors programmes: Agri & Food and Horticulture & Starting Materials. AGROS stands for ‘Evolution to sustainable AGRicultural Operation Systems’. The main goal is to develop tools that can support production that is based on natural biological and ecological processes and thereby steer production towards sustainable use of inputs like energy, water, plant protection products and labour. The knowledge learned from the research and experiments and the professional guidance provided will benefit the participating arable and dairy farmers, greenhouse growers and technology companies. Over the next four years, the business community and the government will invest more than €6.5 million in this programme.
Arable farming
Arable businesses are faced with the challenge of
converting to an environmentally friendly and circular production system
with more biodiversity. To meet these demands the technique of
intercropping (mixed cultivation) looks promising. Using the
intercropping method, crops are no longer grown on large fields in
monocultures, but instead multiple crops are grown next to each other in
alternating rows, which enables more efficient utilisation of light,
water and minerals. Together with the latest disease and pest control
solutions, this leads to higher yields and less damage to the
environment. These mixed cultivation systems are complex to manage and
incompatible with the current large-scale mechanisation systems. The
goal of this project is to explore, develop and test new solutions for
the complex management of mixed cropping systems.
Greenhouse horticulture
There is a continuous demand for fresh and healthy
products of a high quality, regardless of the season. Limiting factor is
the availability of sufficiently qualified personnel who have knowledge
of all aspects of efficient cultivation. AGROS will develop knowledge
to make an autonomously controlled greenhouse possible in which grower's
knowledge is replaced by intelligent algorithms. In
this project, we will determine which plant data are essential for
these algorithms, by which intelligent sensing systems these should be
collected and based on this knowledge, model-based control algorithms
will be developed. With the crop central in the control, the conditions
in the greenhouse can be autonomously adjusted to achieve the
cultivation goals.
Dairy farming
The dairy farming industry is under close scrutiny due to
its impact on the environment and the consumption / use of natural
resources. The key to sustainable dairy farming is to decrease the
carbon footprint of dairy products. One of the elements of this carbon
footprint is the methane emissions of cows, and the Dutch dairy farming
sector is faced with the challenge of substantially reducing these
emissions. The currently available technologies and solutions are not
sufficient to meet the national targets. AGROS will use fundamental
knowledge to develop sensors that can measure the inputs (feed, water)
and outputs (methane, urine, manure, milk) of individual cows and
provide decision support.