Wageningen Plant Research

👏 Congratulations to Bregje Wertheim! As of 1 September, she is the new Chairholder of the Laboratory of Entomology at Wageningen University & Research. Wertheim will be the successor of professor Marcel Dicke, who is retiring at the end of 2024. She will further develop insect research and education in Wageningen: 🐜 “Insects are a hugely diverse group of organisms and crucial to almost every ecosystem. However, the numbers and diversity of insects have declined sharply in recent years,” says Wertheim. “As Chairholder at the Laboratory of Entomology, I look forward to expanding research and education on the functioning of insects in ecosystems, both to develop new knowledge on insect biology, and to counter the decline in their biodiversity.” We would like to thank Marcel Dicke for all he has done for WUR, and of course we congratulate Bregje Wertheim on the new position 🎓 #entomology #insects #biodiversity

It's World Mosquito Day! Mosquitoes may be annoying when they keep you from your sleep, but a much more pressing problem is that they spread diseases such as malaria, Zika or West Nile Virus 🤒 That is why, at Wageningen University & Research, we research the most favourable living conditions for mosquitoes, so we can figure out how they spread. ‘We face many challenges,’ says professor of Ecology and Control of Disease-Transmitting Insects Sander Koenraadt. ‘For instance, the tiger mosquito is becoming increasingly common in the Netherlands. This biting mosquito is a vector for diseases that can cause serious health problems, such as dengue fever and the Zika virus. In parts of Europe, the West Nile virus is on the rise, and in Africa, malaria is becoming a greater issue due to resistance against existing treatments.’ 🌎 Developing sustainable control methods is one of Koenraadt's focus areas. ‘If we understand the behaviour of mosquitoes and ticks, we can control them better. We are working on programmes to control malaria mosquito larvae using a specific bacterium, and we are also trying to design 'attract-and-kill' strategies to lure mosquitoes into traps.’ 💡 Want to know everything about mosquito research at WUR? Check out our dossier 👉 https://lnkd.in/ezeeHfzK #entomology #mosquitoes #zika #malaria #westnilevirus

🌳 Researcher Lennart Fuchs takes you on a virtual tour around our large-scale agroforestry experiment at the experimental fields of WUR Field Crops ! Here we are studying the effect of windbreaks on arable crops in the open polder landscape. We are working on agroforestry in several national and European projects. In the AGROMIX Project we are investigating whether agroforestry can be used to make farming healthy, resilient and able to cope with the effects of climate change. In the project PPS verdienmodellen Agroforestry we are studying the economic perspectives of agroforestry as a business model. 𝐖𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐚𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐚𝐭 𝐖𝐔𝐑? Read the article 👉 https://lnkd.in/ey8peum6 (English) Or visit the dossier 👉 wur.nl/agroforestry (Dutch). 📹 Video: Robert Kaan #agroforestry #climateadaptation #climatechange

💡 Detecting plant viruses at lightning speed with raman spectroscopy A plant virus cannot be seen with the naked eye. After infection, it can take weeks for symptoms to appear, so it often takes a long time before an infection is noticed 🌱 Wageningen University & Research is now researching whether the presence of a virus in a crop can be detected earlier with raman spectroscopy. Researcher Corien Voorburg: “If this detection technique works, viruses can be detected much faster by growers.” A crop responds quickly to infection by a virus. The metabolic activity of the cells changes. WUR is investigating whether this can be detected by using a laser. The scattering of the laser light can be measured: this provides information about the chemical composition of the material. This technique is called raman spectroscopy. Raman spectroscopy is also used, for example, to determine the age of old paintings 🖼 The changed cells on the surface of the leaf ensure a different scattering of the light rays. By detecting these changes (with the help of artificial intelligence), a virus infection can be discovered. 👩🔬 Right now, growers or breeders still have to send a sample to a lab for testing if they suspect a virus infection. The result can often take days. Voorburg hopes that the technology can eventually be used in a small handheld device, so a grower in a greenhouse can scan the crop and immediately receive an indication of whether the crop may be infected with a virus. Voorburg: “The conditions in a greenhouse are very different than in the laboratory where we now conduct the research. But it would be valuable if this technology could ultimately be used in the greenhouse, so virus infections can be noticed earlier, and damage and further infections are therefore prevented.” #plantresearch #AI #phytopathology #virology #greenhouse

❔ Will AI ever fully be able to replace growers? Research shows profitable cultivation is possible with AI 🥒 Artificial intelligence can approach flesh-and-blood cultivation experts and grow a strong crop. This is evident from the first phase of the AGROS project: working towards autonomous greenhouses. 💻 For a number of months, algorithms controlled the climate in a greenhouse with cucumbers. The algorithm has been trained with more than 2 million simulations based on crop and greenhouse climate models. These models are made with data from real past crops, but can generate an enormous amount of synthetic data about cucumber cultivation. Researcher Guido Jansen: “In the beginning, an algorithm is a blank slate. That sometimes led to strange choices. But gradually the decisions got better and better. So it is a matter of learning and unlearning.” 🌱 After training, researchers put it to the test. Cucumbers were grown for 4 months in the greenhouses of Wageningen University & Research in Bleiswijk. Artificial intelligence was applied in one greenhouse, in another greenhouse digital twins were used (i.e. a digital copy of a crop) and there was a greenhouse where cultivation was arranged based on a cultivation plan by a group of cultivation experts. Results showed that artificial intelligence is capable of achieving a strong crop and profitable cultivation. Jansen: “Autonomous cultivation is getting closer. But autonomous cultivation only knows how to deal with known situations. The question is: what does the system do when something unexpected happens? In situations like that, a grower is still needed to make the right decisions.” 💬 Will AI ever be able to fully replace growers? And would that be a good thing, or not? Let us know your thoughts! 👇 #AI #greenhouse #horticulture #cropproduction #foodsecurity

Humanity has achieved the remarkable feat of producing enough affordable food to feed the world, although equitable access remains an issue. However, this abundance is now under threat. At the recent Global Food Security Conference (GFSC) leading food systems experts discussed solutions to avert potential crises. Among them our colleague Martin Van Ittersum, who drew attention to research indicating that plant-based diets could reduce agricultural land use by 43% and cut global greenhouse gas emissions by 52%. https://lnkd.in/g9RkVVfQ

🌦 The climate is changing. Twenty years ago a farmer could still rely on his common sense, but other measures are needed now. And that varies per area. In Valthermond, farms are on peat subsoil. This is a sandy soil released when a layer of peat has been excavated, mixed with the top layer of peat. The land consists of higher dry sandy tops and lower wetter areas. The height difference within the elongated plots is constantly increasing due to peat oxidation: the peat that is exposed to the outside air slowly breaks down. Eventually the land subsides. This process accelerates in warm weather. Wet areas become wetter and dry areas even drier. 🥕 How do farmers in Valthermond keep producing crops while dealing with the problem of retaining sufficient water? 💧 Brenda Timmerman-Pals, researcher at Wageningen University & Research, explains 👇 💡 Want to know more about how farming businesses keep pace with a changing climate? Read the longread 👉 https://lnkd.in/e67ECmV4 #climateadaptation #drought #climatechange #agriculture

🍐 Ready to join us on a journey to revolutionise the world of postharvest technology? Then join our course on novel sensing technology and chemometrics! This course is the perfect opportunity to learn how to detect and measure physical phenomena in fresh horticultural products, providing more detailed insights into their properties 🔬 By following this course, you can make further steps in using new sensing and chemometrics approaches for quality measurements and assessment of fresh horticultural products and make a real impact in reducing food waste. You will learn about the latest advancements in non-destructive sensing technologies 👩🏫 Next to that, you will learn how these tools can be applied to increase yield, improve postharvest quality and make better decisions in fresh supply chains. Join us and gain valuable knowledge and skills in this exciting field! 📆 Mon 30 September - 2 October 2024 📍 Wageningen Campus You can find all info and enroll here 👉 https://lnkd.in/dz_DHjd7 Wageningen Academy | #postharvest #technology #foodwaste

In the mood for good food: honeybee edition 🐝 To function properly and make sure their colony stays healthy, honeybees need a varied diet🌸. To achieve this, they don’t need a dietician. They can obtain all the nutrients they need on their own! How does this work? 🔎When bees are missing certain nutrients, they recognize this deficiency and specifically go looking for the missing sugar, protein or fat in certain flowers. In order to do this, they need a wide variety of flowers in their environment. In monoculture farming today, this is increasingly difficult. If bees do not get all the nutrients they need, problems arise. Their lifespan becomes shorter, they misunderstand each other in their bee dance communication and their cognitive functioning decreases which makes learning, remembering and decision making more difficult. Harmen Hendriksma, bee researcher at Wageningen University & Research, explains: ‘Bees rely on the cognitive abilities of individual bees as well as their ‘hive mind’, to collectively gather food and swarm. Cognitive impairment can therefore have significant consequences for the survival of bee colonies.’ 💡What could solve this? Read more about the research that is currently being done here https://lnkd.in/eD7NaiGn. #honeybees #beehealth #biointeractions 📷Photographer: Harry Kolenbrander

🌾 Is strip cropping the future of farming ❓ Strip cropping is an agricultural method that involves growing different crops in multiple adjacent strips. An increasing body of research by Wageningen University & Research shows that strip cropping benefits biodiversity and offers opportunities for farmers, but poses challenges as well. 🚜 Are you curious about the potential benefits and disadvantages of strip cropping? Or would you like to know more about how it works in practice? Is it a profitable approach, for example? We have now collected our research on strip cropping in a dossier. Take a look! 👉 https://lnkd.in/ewCU_Kj7 🗨 Is strip cropping the future of farming? Or do you believe the potential disadvantages still outweigh the benefits? Let us know your thoughts in the comments! 👇 #stripcropping #biodiversity #cropdiversity #agriculture