Vegetable growers use herbicides to kill weeds to prevent crop loss. Meanwhile, a University of Florida researcher is using artificial intelligence to reduce herbicide sprayed on crops.
“We are building multiple AI-powered herbicide application units, each of which works in different ways,” said Nathan Boyd a UF/IFAS weed scientist and horticultural sciences professor at the Gulf Coast Research and Education Center (GCREC).
Targeted herbicide applications typically kill weeds by applying the chemicals only where the weeds grow.
But in a new study, Boyd and his colleagues developed and evaluated a precision-spraying system designed to make sure herbicide goes through the holes that scientists punch in the plastic mulch and into the soil where tomatoes are growing.
See UF News for more.
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The mission of the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) is to develop knowledge relevant to agricultural, human and natural resources and to make that knowledge available to sustain and enhance the quality of human life. With more than a dozen research facilities, 67 county Extension offices, and award-winning students and faculty in the UF College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, UF/IFAS brings science-based solutions to the state’s agricultural and natural resources industries, and all Florida residents.
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