HEMS

HEMS – Herbicide Efficacy Analytic System for Sustainable Weed Control

CHALLENGE

Herbicide-resistant black grass is identified as an increasing problem in Luxembourg. Following the newly adopted Sustainable Use Directive of the European Commission, member states are expected to increasingly shift their dependence away from synthetic herbicides and proceed to a more environmentally friendly method of cultivation and weed control. Farmers are encouraged to reduce their herbicide input, while maintaining good phytosanitary conditions in their fields. To this aim they need appropriate and accurate recommendations on herbicide efficacy, based on data collected from different farms, growing different crops, in different soils, and environmental conditions.

AIM

HEMS aims to empower farmers by providing them insights for a more sustainable and responsible use of herbicides. HEMS aims to digitalise a relevant part of the weed control process, by combining affordable IoT devices and network infrastructure and advanced data computing technologies. HEMS supports farmers in collecting herbicide-related relevant data in the field (before, during and after spraying); and helps farmers in making informed decisions, thanks to the knowledge obtained from their activities (past applications of herbicides, type of soil in their farm, weather conditions at the application time, etc.).

HOW

To study herbicide efficacy, HEMS will deploy a Pilot in Luxembourg and the Grand-Est region of France, two areas that share similar weather conditions and crop practices. The crops that will be part of HEMS experimental pilot are silage maize, spring peas and linseed. In each Pilot farm, HEMS will deploy several IoT devices and sensors in the field (soil-moisture sensors, weather station, etc.) for monitoring remotely local environmental / soil conditions in real-time. Such data combined with weather forecasts can helps farmers identifying the best weather-related time to apply herbicides, following and matching Herbicide Manufacturer’s recommendations. By applying data analytics to the data collected in real-time in the field, HEMS will be able to separate between adverse environmental conditions (be it soil, humidity, or temperature), and actual herbicide resistance of the target weed. Evidence of herbicide efficacy will be collected also with ultrasonic sensors, and edge computing IoT devices (cameras).

BENEFIT

Nowadays farmers, besides encountering and reporting poor products performance, do not have access to the information needed for choosing and applying “best” herbicides, while reducing the overall use and misuse. HEMS aims to gather during the Pilot activities enough evidence of herbicide efficacy, to help farmers make informed decisions. The HEMS IoT monitoring system of the multi-factors environment in which the herbicide is expected to perform will enable the farmer to anticipate, in real time, whether the conditions for good efficacy have been consistent throughout the critical window of 1-week-before and 3-weeks-after herbicide application. If the actual environmental condition reported by HEMS are not consistent with the label recommendations of the herbicide, then the farmer can safely assume that efficacy of the product will be sub-standard. Consequently, farmers can react promptly, and start the mitigation process much earlier than they would do otherwise.