Sponsored by AvantesReviewed by Maria OsipovaFeb 19 2025
A growing population and shifting climate patterns are directly impacting both agriculture and horticulture. As demand for food rises, unpredictable weather conditions can lead to total crop failures. In response, more farmers and industry leaders are adopting precision agriculture and vertical farming to enhance efficiency and sustainability.
Image Credit: Avantes
Spectroscopy has become a key technology in agriculture, driving efficiency, saving time, and maximizing production. Its potential to shape the future of farming is vast. This article highlights one of its most impactful applications: precision crop control.
Precision Crop Control
Precision crop control involves monitoring, evaluating, and responding to crops to provide exactly what they need for optimal health and productivity. This approach encompasses several key applications, with spectroscopy playing a crucial role.
Plant Health Monitoring
Spectroscopy in Disease Research
Plant health is a top priority for farmers, as it directly impacts yield. Spectroscopy offers a powerful tool for early disease detection, helping to prevent outbreaks before they spread. Near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy, in particular, provides a cost-effective and accurate method for identifying diseases in leaves and crop canopies.
A key example is the detection of Rice Blast Fungus, a major threat to food security due to the severe yield losses it causes. Traditionally, identifying the disease required labor-intensive physical inspections, a challenge for large-scale farming.
With NIR spectroscopy, researchers can analyze the correlation between the Rice Blast disease index and infrared spectra, enabling early detection on a large scale. This not only improves pesticide efficiency but also supports a more sustainable approach to crop management.
Spectroscopy in Handheld Devices
A handheld device can assess leaves in real time using reflectance, absorbance, and transmission spectroscopy. This provides immediate insights into various plant health parameters, enabling early disease detection.
These devices are versatile, making them ideal for use in greenhouses and integration with robotic arms in vertical farming systems, further enhancing automation and efficiency in crop monitoring.
CI-710 Leaf Spectrometer. Image Credit: CID Bio-Science
Spectroscopy Integrated in Modules and Machines
To enhance functionality, spectrometers can be integrated into other measurement systems. A great example is Yara International ASA’s N-Sensor, a module that attaches to farm tractors equipped with fertilizer applicators. This system utilizes spectroscopic diffuse reflection, an ideal method due to its minimal hardware requirements and high-speed performance.
The N-Sensor measures solar illumination and correlates it with reflection data from crops. By analyzing the reflected light, it provides valuable insights into chlorophyll content, generating a plant health score. This score then adjusts fertilizer application levels in real-time and maps the data to GPS coordinates for ongoing monitoring.
Beyond tracking crop health, this system plays a key role in promoting sustainable soil management by optimizing fertilizer use.
Quality Control
Crop quality is yet another critical area of agricultural production where spectroscopic approaches are successfully used.
Scientists at the Polytechnic University of Valencia utilize an Avantes spectrometer to generate a mango quality index for prediction modeling. They also developed a robotic gripper that can make simultaneous tactile and NIR measurements to calculate a mango’s quality and ripeness.
This non-destructive approach to assessing fruit quality relies on the mango samples’ biochemical and physical characteristics. Mangoes are usually not ready to eat at the time of maturity. They demand an extra period for ripening.
Multiple important chemical and physical changes happen inside the fruit in this period. With diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and a fiber-optic probe, the mango skin is assessed to analyze changes in its soluble solid content, ascorbic acid content, water content, and color.
Light Characterization in Greenhouses and Vertical Farming
Light is arguably the most critical environmental factor affecting crops. Plants respond to variations in quantity, quality, direction, and duration of light cues by producing hormones and secondary metabolites that influence yield, food quality, and taste. Understanding these responses is essential for successful indoor cultivation.
Spectrometers are indispensable for characterizing natural and artificial light in greenhouses. While sometimes confused with sensors, these devices provide detailed insights into the quality and quantity of light received, absorbed, or transmitted by plants.
Avantes instruments are widely used in greenhouses to fine-tune LED light mixtures, automate shading adjustments to regulate the daily light integral (DLI), and measure light levels in the PAR (Photosynthetically Active Radiation) zone, ensuring optimal conditions for plant growth.
Image Credit: Avantes
The Future of Farming
Spectroscopy plays a vital role in agriculture and horticulture, providing valuable insights at every stage of the growing cycle. By assessing plant health and making data-driven decisions, farmers can enhance crop production and overall efficiency.
Avantes works closely with industry experts, scientists, governments, and industry innovators to continuously improve and optimize the future of farming.
Summary
With a growing population and the increasing challenges of climate change, agriculture and horticulture are evolving rapidly. More farmers and industry leaders are embracing precision agriculture and vertical farming to enhance efficiency and sustainability.
Spectroscopy has become a key technology in modern farming, offering countless opportunities for improvement—particularly in precision crop control. Spectrometers are invaluable tools for monitoring plant health, ensuring crop quality, and optimizing light conditions in greenhouses and vertical farming environments.
This information has been sourced, reviewed and adapted from materials provided by Avantes.
For more information on this source, please visit Avantes.