SESVanderHave breaking into remote sensing with MAPEO

Towards a more efficient phenotyping

Multi-national sugar beet seed company SESVanderHave is breaking into remote sensing to improve their selection programmes. By monitoring its trial fields for crop breeding with drones and analysing the data via the MAPEO platform, the company’s ‘phenotyping’ is now better and more efficient. This cooperative and innovative approach will not only strengthen their position in a highly competitive market, but will also help to make European agriculture more sustainable.

“The first use cases with drones are presently finding their way to implementation further down the line in our operations. The results show that we can evaluate a number of beet plant characteristics more accurately with drones than with the traditional, visual method.”

Maarten Vanderstukken – Project Manager Brreding, SESVanderHave

Maarten Vanderstukken (SESVanderHave) and Jurgen Decloedt (VITO Remote Sensing) gave an interview about this strategic collaboration. They explain why an efficient phenotyping method is indispensable for raising the yields of agricultural crops and how drone-based phenotyping supports seed breeders and crop protection firms to speed up their cultivation and selection programmes. Read the full article in VITO’s latest VISION magazine.