Syngenta has developed an intelligent plant protection application

(Photo: Syngenta)

“As the world’s leading agricultural company, it is a strategic goal for Syngenta to develop innovative solutions that help our partners in their successful farming. In the life of a farm, the planning, coordination, timing and proper administration of plant protection are a big challenge for professionals. One of the cornerstones of sustainable and profitable plant cultivation is that plant protection is supported in the most efficient way, with professional data. We took this challenge as a basis when we started the domestic adaptation and testing of Cropwise Protector in more than 30 domestic plants last season”, explained Péter Heicz, head of agronomic innovations at Syngenta South-East Europe. As he explained: all functions of Cropwise Protector are organically linked to the operation of the plant. In addition to the field-level winter wheat disease forecast, there is also a boundary review application that combines the observations, data collection, decisions and communication of the specialists involved in plant protection work. The platform enables the display of satellite images of fields with the Cropwise Imagery system. In addition, it also includes planning and administrative functions supporting plant protection work.

One of the most striking parts of Protector is the winter wheat field-level disease model, which provides a 5-day forecast for the main diseases

This not only collects weather data, but also takes into account soil type, previous crop, time of sowing and emergence, and disease susceptibility of the cultivated variety. In this way, the farmer can receive recommendations for the timing of the treatments completely tailored to the farm and the given field, improve the efficiency of the treatments and increase the average yield. The system will soon be expanded with new sled-lake crops, autumn barley and sunflowers.

The boundary review and the timeline application support communication within the team

The border inspection, which is also available on smart devices, makes plant protection processes and related data efficient and transparent for those involved in the application. The display of satellite images of the Sentinel 2 system provides effective help in the continuous monitoring of the fields, which provides an up-to-date picture of the development and changes of the plant population, and with its help, it is possible to correct possible negative impacts – for example, technological errors, soil stains. With the smart spraying function, professionals can create annual plant protection plans and monitor them. With the help of the system, they can give tasks or work instructions and after spraying, they can simply administer the plant protection treatment. This data then forms an integral part of the spray log. Introducing a new digital system to a farm is a learning process for everyone, so Syngenta experts help with personal consultations to learn how to use Cropwise Protector on the farm.