EMPHASIS-Belgium newsletter - What's new in plant phenotyping?

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Newsletter
November 2022

Featured event

Drones in Agrofood:
Drone-based phenotyping for experimental fields

Phenotyping crops in experimental fields is a great example of where drone technology can offer excellent value for the agricultural sector. Drones allow us to measure plant traits of interest in a scalable and objective way. But what is phenotyping exactly? What are the possibilities and limitations? And how can I get started?

This workshop aims to inspire organizations from both the agricultural sector (seeds, agro-chemicals, biologicals, consultants, ...) and drone sector with the aim to increase the knowledge and use of operational drone services for agricultural applications.

Irene Borra-Serrano (ILVO) and Dries Raymaekers (VITO) will show you the possibilities of drone-base phenotyping technology to dynamically analyze crop performance in the field throughout the growing season.

Join this webinar to learn more about the use case, technology and how to get started.

November 17th 2022
13:00 - 15:30 CET

More information & registration

Latest news

First phase of construction completed for the new high-throughput plant phenotyping system at VIB's Agro-Incubator

The team at the VIB Agro-Incubator is pleased to announce the first step of the construction phase of their new high throughput plant phenotyping system is completed.

A collaborative effort of three Belgian research institutes shines light on the performance of novel maize lines in Belgian field conditions

Thanks to VITO, VIB’s annual maize field trials received several visits of an imaging drone, revealing the phenotypes of novel maize lines in Belgian field conditions throughout the growing season.

PlantComp 2022 - Frontiers in Plant Science special issue open for contributions
The special issue of Frontiers in Plant Science linked to the PlantComp 2022 workshop is now open for contributions.

All EMPHASIS-Belgium news

Infrastructure
update & access

Construction of the FABPS infrastructure about to start at ILVO
The construction of the infrastructure FABPS (Field Above and Below ground Phenotyping System) will start in the coming weeks with the installation of the ERT system.

Upcoming upgrade of the CEPI platforms at VIB-UGent PSB
The upgrade of the existing CEPI (Controlled-Environment Phenotyping Installations) platforms at the VIB-UGent Center for Plant Systems Biology (PSB) will start in December 2022.

Upcoming events

Dag van de Wetenschap - Day of Science

Sunday 27/11/2022 will be the 'Dag van de Wetenschap', the Day of Science. Research Centers, companies and organizations all over Flanders will open their doors and organize tours, workshops and other activities. Several plant research centers will be opening their doors, for example the VIB-UGent Center for Plant Systems Biology, where visitors have the opportunity to join a guided tour to see the plant phenotyping platforms in action.

Dag van de Wetenschap

Recommended reading

Journal of Experimental Botany: Special issue on Plant Phenotyping for a Sustainable Future

This special issue looks into plant phenotyping as an essential part of understanding the interaction between plants and their environment at a range of scales and how this knowledge can help improve crop productivity and quality.

Advances in plant phenotyping for more sustainable crop production

Advances in plant phenotyping for more sustainable crop production reviews the wealth of research on advances in plant phenotyping to meet this challenge, including new technologies such as optical and thermographic sensors, as well as alternative carrier systems such as field robots and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The book details the use of plant phenotyping to analyse traits such as crop root functionality, yield performance and disease resistance.

EMPHASIS-Belgium

As the Belgian national node of EMPHASIS, EMPHASIS-Belgium aims to facilitate access to plant phenotyping infrastructure for academic researchers and industry. We aim to connect the Belgian plant phenotyping community and support the exchange of knowledge and know-how by organizing training and outreach.
If you have interesting news to share with the plant phenotyping community, or if you are planning to organize an activity of interest to the plant phenotyping community, please contact us at:

selwyn.villers@psb.vib-ugent.be

lennart.verbraeken@psb.vib-ugent.be