Project Biospray is an industrial challenge project: the goal is to adapt Ecorobotix's ultra-high precision technology to meet the needs of biocontrol applications and conduct field trials.
‘Natural’ herbicides can be used to treat weeds but can also harm the crops if they are broadly sprayed so they are best delivered by an ultra-high precision sprayer which targets individual plants, spraying only weeds but not crops.
Steve Tanner, CTO Ecorobotix
Sugar beet was selected as the crop for the trials because few chemical synthetic herbicidal active ingredients are available today and further reductions are expected in the coming years.
Therefore, the Biospray project targeted three crop care applications in sugar beet: selective application of pelargonic acid (organic herbicide), azadirachtin and spintor (two organic insecticides).
The field test results across two seasons showed satisfactory weeding results and a reduction in insecticide use. Furthermore, herbicide savings of ~70-95% can be made using ARA's Ultra-High Precision Sprayer.
More agronomic tests are needed to validate the exact efficiency of these new biocontrol products and fine-tune machine performance for this use-case.
Biocontrol products can be used both in conventional farming and bio/organic farming. However, the formal homologation of these biocontrol products is still ongoing for use in organic/bio farming.
Project Biospray is supported by the agROBOfood programme. This EU initiative promotes the effective adoption of robotic technologies and accelerates digital transformation to make the European agri-food sector more efficient and competitive.
