PhenoMix: Multidimensional field phenotyping of crop mixtures
Motivation
Today, the main crops are grown as pure stands. However, this bears a number of challenges, like high pesticide demand or declining biodiversity. Despite known benefits, growing two or more species together on the same field at the same time is not a widespread management practice. One main reason is the lack of knowledge on suitable combinations of varieties of crop species in different environments. State-of-the-art technologies and applications such as imaging technology, artificial intelligence and stable isotope analyses hold the potential to improve our understanding of crop x environment interactions. The project results will thus inform the improvement of crop mixtures and the transition towards a more sustainable agriculture.
Test the hypothesis that current high throughput field phenotyping (HTFP) technology in combination with plant ecophysiological assessments and data science can provide a breakthrough to determine genotypes that can be successfully combined in agroecologically beneficial legume-cereal crop mixtures. Testing this hypothesis requires an interdisciplinary research approach that ranges from basic data science via ecophysiological field observations to aspects of agronomic practice – with phenotyping in the centre of activities.
The aims of PhenoMix are to
a) collect HTFP data, improve phenotyping workflows and develop a field robot for lean phenotyping of pure crop stands and crop mixtures in the field,
b) develop phenotyping models to transfer HTFP methods to lean phenotyping devices for 3D and to assess the temporal development of crops and crop mixtures,
c) assess differences in ecosystem services and crop resource use between pure stands and crop mixtures, and
d) assess the agronomic and economic value of such mixtures with respect to their nutritional quality and agronomic performance – which will iteratively feed back into aim a).
This circle of analytical steps allows both scientific analyses and explorations of agronomical value that will generate knowledge on how to improve crop mixtures for a transition towards a more sustainable agriculture.
PhenoMix is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation as an interdisciplinary, joint project of four project partners. It aims to address multiple aspects of agroecologically beneficial legume-cereal crop mixtures in the field, namely different varieties of pea and lentil as well as wheat, oats and barley grown under the field phenotyping platform FIP, on a neighboring experimental field and in farmers’ fields.
- Cultivation of pure stands and two-species mixtures in the experimental fields
- Acquisition of HTFP data from the FIP, drones and handheld devices
- Phenotyping robot establishment and data acquisition
- Trait extraction with existing models (plant height, canopy cover, …)
- Generate model predicting optimal cereal-legume combinations
2026-2030