Posted on January, 14, 2025 at 12:36 am
Researchers at the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture (UTIA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) have received a grant of more than $324,000 from USDA’s National Institute of Food & Agriculture (NIFA) to develop efficient monitoring systems for insect infestations in grain storage and large-scale food processing facilities.
These advanced automated sensors, insect traps and robotic technologies will work together to identify which pest species are present, determine the location of contaminated areas and generate estimations of pest population sizes in stored corn, wheat, tobacco, hops and more.
An autonomous ground robot will also be developed to acquire data to produce reliable 2-D floor maps of infestations, ensuring control strategies use minimal pesticides and are accurately applied before significant food and financial loss occurs.
Chetan Badgujar, project lead and agricultural engineer in the University of Tennessee Department of Biosystems Engineering & Soil Science, said the new systems will reduce post-harvest losses and contamination in the global food market and supply chain.
“Current detection methods are often inaccurate, time consuming and labor intensive. Our new devices will provide automated reports of infestations thanks to an advanced, robotic-based recognition system that is functional anywhere and with any local insect populations,” he explained.
To ensure developed technologies are affordable and effective, research teams will routinely engage with stakeholders, including farm supply stores and grain mills, to implement beta testing and to conduct year-round cost-benefit analyses.
The three-year project is part of NIFA’s Crop Protection & Pest Management program, which has recently invested another $20 million to address high-priority issues related to pest management at the state, regional and national levels. Badgujar will be working on the project alongside Alison Gerken and Deanna Scheff, researchers at the ARS Center for Grain & Animal Health Research in Manhattan, Kan.
Badgujar and UTIA researcher Hao Gan also are the recipients of a more than $50,000 grant from the Center for Produce Safety to develop automated deterrence systems for pest birds impacting produce fields. This one-year project will utilize digital sound surveillance technologies to identify bird species and initiate automatic visual and auditory deterrents, reducing the spread of avian foodborne pathogens.
Source: The Feedstuffs