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QS-Report Fruit, Vegetables, Potatoes | Issue September 2018 New technologies in plant research QS Advisory Board visiting research centre in Jülich What is modern plant research working on to contribute to solving global mega-trends such as food security, climate change and bio-economics? Which technical innovations of today‘s research, for more yield with greater efficiency in the use of water and nutrients, less impact on the en- vironment and better adaptation to future climate conditi- ons, will be found in actual practice in the medium term? These are just a few of the questions that were intensively discussed during the visit of the advisory board at the Institute of Plant Sciences of the Jülich Research Centre. Prof. Ulrich Schurr, Chairman of the QS Science Fund Fruit, Vegetables, Potatoes, explained in detail what conse- quences the increasing population on our planet will have for plant production: in the period from 2010 to 2050 the same amount of biomass will have to be produced as in the entire history of mankind beforehand. At the same time, the area for plant or crop production cannot be increased. New sensors, automation and robotics as well as digitiza- tion offer innovative options for finding solutions to these urgent questions. Completely newpossibilitieswill be avai- lable for both cultivation and plant management in years to come. Genetics and physiology are becoming increasingly intertwined: with state-of-the-art genome sequencing techniques and innovative approaches to plant physio- logy. Today in Jülich, for example, tomographic methods are now used in research that were previously only seen in medicine: magnetic resonance tomography and positron emission tomography (PET) are now common instruments in hospitals. At the Jülich Research Centre, they are used to examine root systems. Without having to dig out the roots, it is possible to study their development, the emergence of diseases and the dynamics of water and nutrient up- take. Such results are then processed further by growers and plant producers to select more efficient plants with higher yields and develop effective plant management. „Industry 4.0“ is not usually associated with plant re- search, but networking and digitization of production does not even stop here. For example, researchers in Jülich are using autonomous robots to survey natural diversity as well as breeder-re- levant populations. For the advisory board and Prof. Schurr, one thing is important: not only grain is processed here, but data on fruit, vegetables and potatoes can also be collected using these modern methods. In addition to high-tech in the greenhouse, dro- nes, robots and various digitization methods are increasingly being used out in the field. For example, resear- chers are measuring the develop- ment of stock structures over time. The researchers are not content with today’s level of high-tech: new pro- jects are combining robotics, digi- tal analysis methods (e.g. machine learning and modelling) with the excellent knowledge of plants, soils and environmental monitoring. The economic research being conducted in parallel has the goal of showing the ways, which advantages these new methods offer the practitioner, how IMPRINT Editor: QS Qualität und Sicherheit GmbH Dr. Hermann-Josef Nienhoff, Managing Director Schedestr. 1–3, GER-53113 Bonn Phone: +49 228 35068-0 Fax: +49 228 35068-10 E-Mail: info@q-s.de www.q-s.de Subscribe now Get the latest QS-Report and Newsletter always on time. www.q-s.de/subscription.html News in brief they can be put into practice more quickly, and which consequences they will have in the working world. One thing is clear following the visit to the Research Centre in Jülich: there are many innovations in the resear- chers‘ pipeline; if Germany wants to remain fit for the future, science and practice must work together to imple- ment these options in products and applications. The QS Science Fund will also make a small but important contribution in this regard: because practice and science must be able to speak with one voice. QS DATABASE - NEW LOGIN OPTION FOR SCHEME PARTICIPANTS Information and data protection are very important to QS. In order to enable QS-certified farmers and pro- ducers to have a picture of what kind of monitoring and audit data about their farms are stored in the QS database, they will in future be able to have their own access to the QS database. Up to now, this was only possible via the coordi- nators. From September, the login details will be sent by e-mail via the respective coordinators. SUSTAINABILITY: QS-GAP ACHIEVES GOLD STATUS AT SAI In the first half of 2018, the Farm Sustainability Assessment (FSA) of the Sustainable Agriculture In- itiative Platform (SAI) for QS-GAP was carried out. The SAI platform is a global initiative on the part of food companies. It develops tools and guidance to support global and local sustainable procurement and agricultural practices and conducts benchmarking with standards organ- isations in the sector. The result for QS-GAP: in combination with German legislation, gold status is achieved. In combination with European legislation, QS-GAP achieves silver status. The detailed benchmarking has been published on the FSA website. Quality assurance. From farm to shop.