Farming is an increasingly data driven industry, so it’s perhaps no surprise that a growing amount of attention is devoted to efficient management of this data.

Researchers from Norwich Research Park have developed an open-source system, called CropSight, to help farmers maintain and collate the vital crop and climate information they rely on to function effectively.

The work, which was documented in a recently published paper, aims to make it easier to calibrate, annotate and aggregate the vastly diverse range of data collected by farm technology today.  The ability to understand the dynamics between crop performance, environmental factors and genotypes is vital to the success of the farm, and so efficiently managing this data is key.

Real-time monitoring

The system aims to provide real-time monitoring both of the environmental conditions and the growth of each crop.  It’s designed to be accessible both in the field and via computers back at the lab or office.

“We believe that the CropSight system could have a significant impact on scalable plant phenotyping leading to more efficient gene discovery, crop breeding, and ultimately end user benefits,” the team explain.

As well as being accessible, the system aims to automate both data collection and information management, therefore supporting a range of experiments in the field.  It also underpins a wide range of network sensing devices with a daily synchronization of data and crop growth imaging possible.

“Through connecting environmental readings with crop growth dataset using IoT-based technologies, we have demonstrated how IoT can be applied in crop research and agricultural practices. Additionally, with the development of national IoT infrastructure, CropSight can be expanded to even larger scale and multiple locations, which can then help agricultural practitioners make prompt decisions across a country’s arable land,” the team conclude.