Châtenay-Malabry (FR - 92290), 29 August 2016


EFITA newsletter / 749 - European Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, Food and the Environment



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Yara acquiring a Bulgarian farm management system company, MicroAccount (source: NewAgInternational)
Yara International ASA has reached an agreement with the Bulgarian company MicroAccount to acquire their Farm Management System business in Bulgaria and Romania.

"By combining Yara's extensive crop nutrition knowledge with a broad portfolio of digital farm management tools and services, we will have a unique platform from which to support our customers, far beyond the geographical area this business currently serves," says Yara's Head of Crop Nutrition, Terje Knutsen.

Last year Yara introduced a new farmer centric strategy for the Crop Nutrition segment. Digital tools and services like Farm Management Systems are becoming an increasingly important part of modern farming, and Yara has sought to strengthen its position in this area.

"We want to be the farmer's crop nutrition partner and deliver complete crop nutrition solutions, not only fertilizer. By expanding our digital tools and services portfolio we can help the farmer increase productivity and improve crop quality further, while at the same time contributing to reduce the environmental impact of agriculture," says Knutsen.

For a number of years, Yara has invested in R&D and innovation to convert crop based agronomy and application knowledge into a digital format, through development of precision farming tools and services. The current portfolio includes the Yara N-Sensor which helps optimize the application of nitrogen fertilizers, smartphone apps designed to identify nutrient status and deficiencies in crops, and the knowledge bank Megalab where farmers' leaf or soil samples are used to give a complete recommendation for a Crop Nutrition Solution.

The acquired business will be operated from Varna in Bulgaria and become an integrated part of Yara Crop Nutrition's global footprint.
See: http://yara.com/media/press_releases/2014008/press_release/201605/yara-strengthens-its-digital-offering-by-acquiring-farm-management-system-company/


Hortau: Precision irrigation based on soil tension and big data
Hortau’s patented, plant-centric approach to measuring soil tension allows growers to detect plant stress (from drought and other factors) before it becomes visible in the crop. And get this, the system is easy to use.
See: http://hortau.com/soil-tension/
See: http://hortau.com/benefits/


Putting Technology to Work for Horticulture: Process Control and Automation Engineering
Two separate trials underway at the Vineland Research and Innovation Centre are proof positive that robots used in a horticultural setting are more than capable of doing some of the work performed by their human counterparts, at a fraction of the cost.
See: http://vinelandresearch.com/program/putting-technology-work-horticulture-process-control-and-automation-engineering
See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39pwCEYadmw


Cucumber harvesting robot
Today, labour is the largest cost factor of a modern greenhouse holding. More than 30% of the total production costs are spent on wages for the grower and his employees. Obviously, to cope with saturating market demands and increasing competition, the grower is looking for ways to improve the over-all efficiency of the production process. Manual labour in a greenhouse is demanding, especially under poor climatic conditions.
Because the robots reported in literature were not suited for the high productivity growing systems used in Dutch horticultural practice, in 1996, Wageningen UR Greenhouse Horticulture began research on the development of an autonomous cucumber harvesting robot supported by the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries. The task of designing robots for agricultural applications raises issues not encountered in other industries. The robot has to operate in a highly unstructured environment in which no two scenes are the same. Both crop and fruit are prone to mechanical damage and should be handled with care. The robot has to operate under adverse climatic conditions, such as high relative humidity and temperature as well as changing light conditions.
The robot detects individual cucumbers, assesses theri ripeness and harvest the ripe cucumbers. During greenhouse experiments 95% of the ripe cucumbers were detected and 75% were harvested.
See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiQG4zhMHLM


At Case IH we're rethinking productivity. The Case IH Autonomous Concept Vehicle has the potential to revolutionize farming…
See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwC_Hzm5Z9s&feature=youtu.be
See: http://www.caseih.com/northamerica/en-us/pages/campaigns/autonomous-concept-vehicle.aspx


Xenemetrix: Energy Dispersive X-Ray fluorescence (ED-XRF) for performing on-site analysis of material elements (N, P, K) (source: NewAgInternational)
Eurocontrol’s Xenemetrix Announces MOU with Netafim for Entry into the Precision Agriculture Industry.
See: http://www.xenemetrix.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&layout=edit&id=464
See: http://www.xenemetrix.com/about-us/news-and-events/930-march_28_2016.html

Cómo detectar camelos y tonterías pseudocientíficas
Veinte años después de su muerte, el mensaje del divulgador científico Carl Sagan sigue siendo necesario. Esta es su guía para combatir falacias
Ver: http://elpais.com/elpais/2016/03/03/buenavida/1457011430_052456.html


The Age of Post-Truth Politics
Facts hold a sacred place in Western liberal democracies. Whenever democracy seems to be going awry, when voters are manipulated or politicians are ducking questions, we turn to facts for salvation.
But they seem to be losing their ability to support consensus. PolitiFact has found that about 70 percent of Donald Trump’s “factual” statements actually fall into the categories of “mostly false,” “false” and “pants on fire” untruth.
For the Brexit referendum, Leave argued that European Union membership costs Britain 350 million pounds a week, but failed to account for the money received in return.
The sense is widespread: We have entered an age of post-truth politics....
See: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/24/opinion/campaign-stops/the-age-of-post-truth-politics.html


Shill gambit: Are geneticists who work for corporations less ethical than university researchers? - Layla Katiraee
See: https://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2016/08/24/shill-gambit-are-geneticists-who-work-for-corporations-less-ethical-than-university-researchers/

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Four Worms and a Lesson to be learned

A minister decided that a visual demonstration would add emphasis to his Sunday sermon. Four worms were placed into four separate jars.

The first worm was put into a container of alcohol.

The second worm was put into a container of cigarette smoke.

The third worm was put into a container of chocolate syrup.

The fourth worm was put into a container of good clean soil.

At the conclusion of the sermon, the Minister reported the following results:

The first worm in alcohol - Dead.

The second worm in cigarette smoke – Dead.

The Third worm in chocolate syrup – Dead.

Fourth worm in good clean soil - Alive.

So the Minister asked the congregation: What did you learn from this demonstration?

Maxine, who was sitting in the back, quickly raised her hand and said: 'As long as you drink, smoke and eat chocolate, You won't have worms!'


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Contact: Guy WAKSMAN
E-mail: guy.waksman(a)laposte.net


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Jokes, Quotes and Anecdotes... an Anatomy of Wit
Mick Harkin, ex Secretary of EFITA, who has kept us amused with his Friday Jokes over the years, has published a book on Amazon entitled "Jokes, Quotes and Anecdotes... an Anatomy of Wit".
See: http://www.jokesquotesandanecdotes.com
Contact: Mick HARKIN
E-mail: mickjharkin(a)gmail.com

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