British idea for fighting famine

Doctor Adam Michalski from the Institute of Geodesy and Geoinformatics at the University of Environmental and Life Sciences in Wrocław went to the Rothamsted Research Station, the oldest agricultural research station not only in Great Britain but in the world, first for an internship at the “All inclusive” programme. Before him there was Doctor Grzegorz Kulczycki from the Faculty of Life Sciences and Technology, who went to Rothamsted for the same programme for a six month internship.

- The Rothamsted Research Station was founded in 1843 by John Bennet Lawes in Harpenden, Hertfordshire, located only 25 minutes away from London (by train) – Grzegorz Kulczycki says that the Station and field experiments conducted from the very beginning of the Rothamsted Research’s existence have been very impressive. – At the beginning the main aim of the research was to evaluate the impact of mineral and natural fertilization on the soil and plants. The experiments have been conducted in an unchanged manner up to today, covering an area of 330 hectares and they are called “field experiments” in the classical literature. Based on the experiments and thanks to the collection of a huge research material base, it is possible to carry out a wide number of interdisciplinary research – adds Grzegorz Kulczycki, who describes his internship at Rothamsted Research with great enthusiasm.

– It is not only an opportunity to make international contacts but also to meet people who you knew only from scientific publications or academic course books. Moreover, there is also the aspect of the multicultural character of the institute, thus the research teams consist of many people from different countries and continents – added Kulczycki.

Rothamsted Research emphasizes that the power and prestige of the Institute comes from the interdisciplinary character of the conducted research in relation with the traditional agricultural field research.

It does not come as a surprise that the internship is also praised by Adam Michalski. – My first stay in Rothamsted lasted for one month. They provided me with research capabilities and covered the stay in a “worker’s hostel”, which is an 18th century manor house where you can feel real English atmosphere and tradition as well as meet people from all over the world – joked the young researcher.

What does a spatial information system specialist do in an agricultural institute?

To put it briefly – study wheat.

Adam Michalski and Grzegorz Kulczycki said that one of the most important future challenges is to ensure the safety of food. That is why Great Britain has undertaken the strategic project to provide us with the necessary knowledge and tools to increase the wheat harvest to obtain 20 tons from a hectare within next 20 years. The programme is called 20:20 Wheat, and researchers from Wrocław dealt with the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for evaluating the level of wheat nutrition and checking the features of plant changeability at the level of phenotype in order to improve the efficiency of nutrients in the process of plant fertilization.

– The Center develops modern methods of plant nourishment based on classic field experiments. They are based on solutions used in the system of precise agriculture. Using drones equipped with infrared and thermal infrared cameras it is possible to carry out advanced multispectral analysis. The evaluation of plant nourishment with nitrogen is performed by calculations based on the images of plant indexes. It allows to be more precise with doses of nitrogen fertilizers depending on the level of plant nutrition, which results in lower expenditures concerning the purchase of fertilizers and lower level of nitrates in the environment – explained the Wrocław researchers.

The project has already been carried out for four years. – In practice it looks like this - a large field is divided into hundreds of small fields. “My” field consists of three hundred small ones. Each one has a different kind of wheat planted, and they are fed by growing doses of nitrogen. My task is to evaluate the height of the plants and from that to evaluate the biomass at particular stages of vegetation and forecasting the size of wheat harvest – said Adam Michalski. He also added that the measures may also be made using traditional “land” methods, but there are experiments where you have to analyze about five thousand research fields. Using drones in such cases reduces the work significantly.

The leading role of Rothamsted Research in environmental research is proven by the fact that the first field Scanalyzer 3D in the world has been activated there this year. This fully automated platform, 10m x 110m, placed on a special crane over the research field allows the monitoring of wheat growing in real time 24h/day during the year.

– In this way we can obtain a full evaluation of plant changeability at the level of phenotype, such as growth, development, tolerance, resistance, architecture or harvest function. It is an incredible quality jump. The system collects data for measuring chlorophyll fluorescence decay kinetics, and thanks to the 3D visualization we may define the physiological parameters of crops - explained Grzegorz Kulczycki and added that the collected data will allow learning about the features of wheat changeability, which will help to improve food safety in the system of balanced development of agriculture.

– In Poland we are unable to perform such research due to financial reasons. Certainly it is also difficult to apply the research results obtained in Great Britain to the Polish environment because we have different soil and climate conditions. First of all, both of us expanded our knowledge and moreover, we already have ideas for activities in Poland – said Adam Michalski and added that together with Grzegorz Kulczycki they have an idea for a grant.

– It will not be easy because we need a partner to get this grant, and farmers are interested in fast profits and not long-term investments in scientific research. Although, at present in Poland, there are huge farms so we need to try and take a risk – said Grzegorz Kulczycki and also described the closest result of the internship. Doctor Malcolm J Hawkesford, a deputy head of the Department of Plant Biology and Crop Science from Rothamsted Research and the head of 20:20 Wheat project, will come to the conference organized by the Department of Plant Nutrition – “Microelements in farming” (21-24 June 2016).

Adam Michalski is coming back to Wrocław in November. He says that the British 20:20 Wheat plan seems to be very successful. The data analyzed, also with help of Wrocław researchers, proves that after 20 years of research the Brits will actually get 20 tons of wheat from a hectare by selecting particular types of wheat.

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