#CountdownToMars
The NASA Perseverance rover landed at Mars’ Crater on February 18, nearly seven months after its last takeoff. Perseverance becomes the fifth NASA rover to ever touch down on Mars after Sojourner, twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity and Curiosity. Perseverance will spend the next years searching for signs of ancient microbial life in a historic mission that will bring back samples from Mars to Earth and prepare the way for future human visitors.
For more: NASA
The new report shows the importance of sustainable solutions in AgriTech.
And back to AgriTech! U.S. Farmer & Ranchers, in partnership with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, released a report, which analyses soil health technologies.
In general, the report converges on such practices as crop rotation, tillage with preserved residues, integrated crop systems, etc.
This release is the fundamental step in the process of mapping soil carbon sequestration.
Source: AGDaily
Species diversity along the bees protects them from the disease.
The new analysis of Michigan state’s bees found that the most diverse bees have the lowest rate of three common viral pathogens.
The lowest virus rate was well connected to species richness among the local bee communities.
“This result is exciting as it suggests that promoting diverse bee communities may be a win-win strategy to reduce viral infections in managed honeybee colonies helping to maintain native bee biodiversity in the same time,” said Michelle Fearon, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Michigan Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.
Read more: ScienceDaily
Singapore launches more than a $45M AgriTech fund for boosting urban food production.
The Singapore Government will allocate S$60M for the new fund to help farmers in the city-state technology, which is used to increase household food production.
Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat said: “The AgriFood Cluster Transforming Fund is expected to continue supporting technology adoption in the AgriFood sector, and the technologies are a game-changer in Agriculture and will open new possibilities. We used technology to overcome our water and land constraints, and we will do the same concerning climate change.”
Full article: AFN
Strawberries are counting with a drone.
Belgian Institute for the manufacturing industry Flanders Make with the Belgian Experimental Fruit Growing center developed drones that are making an inventory and count the number of flowers or berries on an agricultural area.
“For this case, we collected aerial images of blossoming strawberry crops”, — says Rob Heylen, a researcher at Flanders Make. “Our algorithm analyzed the image and counted the number of visible ones.”
View the resource: Future Farming
Intercropping as a new technology to increase production outcome.
In the past few years, a farmer from North Dakota, Greg Busch, has developed his crop diversity technology by growing two crops together in one field.
“The benefits of growing multiple crops are many. Having a diverse rotation helps me reduce my nitrogen costs; it reduces disease and increases marketing opportunities,” he says. “It also helps me improve soil biology, and it lengthens the time that I have living roots in the soil.”
“Potential benefits of intercropping include an increase in total crop production, stabilized production, improved fertilizer-use efficiency, reduced incidence of pests, enhanced soil biological activity, reduction in erosion, and improved harvest,” says Blaine Schatz, director of the North Dakota State University Carrington Research Extension Center.
More information: Successful Farming
That’s the news for now. Stay tuned and see you next Friday!
