Photonics in Agriculture and Food Systems
- Overview
Climate change, overpopulation, and scarcity of farmland and water are forcing people to find innovative agricultural methods to meet the nutritional needs of the planet's population while minimizing their ecological footprint.
Optical and photonic devices are used in the agricultural industry to avoid harming nearby wildlife populations with heavy machinery, gather information on key indicators for big data analysis, and detect crop diseases early. This enables farmers to use more sustainable, efficient and less toxic methods of producing food.
Photonics is already playing an important role in accelerating the modernization of the food industry and paving the way for more productive, chemical-free, environmentally friendly, resource-efficient and sustainable farming methods.
- Agricultural Photonics
Using optical and photonic techniques, remote sensing data in the visible, near-infrared and thermal infrared bands are used to measure crop health and produce quality.
Agricultural photonics represents a new branch of research that includes advances in electronics and optoelectronics implemented on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), decision support systems (DSSs), multispectral imaging, and sensing for precision agriculture.
- Spectral Imaging for Agriculture
Spectral imaging refers to a group of analytical techniques that collect spectroscopic information and imaging information at the same time. The spectroscopic information tells us about the chemical makeup at the individual points of the image (pixels) allowing a chemical map of the imaged area to be produced.
One important way photonics is helping farmers provide nutritious, affordable food is through the introduction of spectrometers and hyperspectral cameras, which allow farmers to detect protein levels in wheat crops, for example, or to spot fruit and vegetable contaminants.
[More to come ...]