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Humans have been engaged in crop cultivation for thousands of years. However, in the past 20 years, emerging genetically modified biotechnology has helped researchers understand and change crop genes, thereby increasing crop yields, using fewer pesticides or fertilizers, and achieving better results.
Big profit.
For many years, bio-transgenic engineering has been a widely accepted technology, but plant genetic changes may lead to unintended consequences. Therefore, genetically modified plants must be cultivated in a controlled environment. At CropDesign, researchers are now using RFID technology to speed up this process.
To assess the impact of genetically modified rice-for example, to test whether genetic changes can increase their drought resistance, heat tolerance, or increase yield-CropDesign carefully tracked each rice plant during the four-month cultivation process. Scanners and cameras automatically take pictures and measure the leaf size, root system growth, flower and seed growth of each plant. This crop tracking system raiseMill is the world’s largest such system, and the company claims that automation is the key to success.
The CropDesign greenhouse grows approximately 40,000 plants.A mechanical conveyor belt automatically uses RFID to obtain each plant and sends it to an imaging system for analysis
Without RFID technology, this system cannot be automated, said CropDesign technology developer Frederik Leyns. In the company’s 2,400-square-meter greenhouse, each plant is sent to five scanning stations via a conveyor belt at least once a week, where a machine takes hundreds of photographs and scans of the plants from six different angles. The plants are then returned to their original locations in the greenhouse. In order to achieve plant tracking throughout the process, CropDesig uses an RFID tag for each pot. “A total of 35,000 plants flow through this system every week. This cannot be done manually. Each site where plants flow through the greenhouse is equipped with a tag reader.”
The genetically modified rice is kept in an automated greenhouse for up to four months. The unique ID code of the plant RFID tag corresponds to the image and other related data in the computer system of the research center.This means that researchers can quickly obtain gene conversion pairs
The influence of plants.
An RFID tag is inserted into each pot of genetically modified plants in the CropDesign greenhouse
If the CropDesign staff wants to observe the plants up close, the RFID system can locate the plants in a specific location in the greenhouse. “When we need to sample or take photos, we can know exactly which part of the greenhouse to look for plants,” Leyns said. When the plants mature, workers harvest the seeds, affix a barcode, analyze and store them, and the plant’s RFID tag-the size of a credit card-is removed and redistributed to new plants.
Before developing the RFID solution, the company considered adopting a barcode system, but the test results were not satisfactory. “We recognize that barcodes cannot be fully automated,” Leyns said. “The wet and dirty characteristics of the greenhouse will quickly stain the barcode. If you use a barcode, you may be at risk of losing a lot of ID codes.” Currently, he claims that barcodes are still a backup system for RFID.
Since 2002, CropDesign has used low-frequency passive RFID tags to track plants. The tags are encapsulated in epoxy resin to protect the circuit from high humidity in the greenhouse. The greenhouse temperature is 28 degrees Celsius in winter and 38 degrees Celsius in summer, and the relative humidity is between 70% and 100%-this is perfect for the cultivation of rice plants, but it puts a certain pressure on the normal operation of electronic equipment.
According to Leyns, unusually harsh environments often have some unintended consequences. The reading distance of the tag is reduced by 5-10% every year. He said that it may be because the resin has the same size of hair and cracks, which leads to the infiltration of moisture. “When we first paid attention to this phenomenon, people couldn’t believe it. It is likely that moisture penetrated into the label and caused oxidation.” Moreover, he said that a lot of machinery is placed in the greenhouse, which often interferes with the LF signals of tags and readers.
In order to improve label performance, CropDesign cooperated with a technical college to design and install a high-frequency system that complies with the ISO 15693 standard. The new 13.56 MHz passive tags will be encapsulated in PET plastic, which is expected to last longer than resin.
CropDesign is currently launching high-frequency RFID tags and readers, Leyns said, this system is expected to be available this summer.
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