Monitoring tool for the flax sector
Within the VLAIO Flaxsense 2.0 project, the General Belgian Flax Association, Inagro, ILVO and VITO Remote Sensing are joining forces to prepare the flax sector for a sustainable future.
After the potato sector, the flax sector is now also ready to welcome new technologies such as remote sensing, big-data-analysis and AI into their daily operations, to promote more sustainable cultivation, increased efficiency and competitiveness.
By combining objective satellite and drone images and meteorological data via AI techniques with the state-of-the-art agricultural and practical knowledge of Inagro and ILVO, the existing flax growth model can be calibrated and validated. The future monitoring tool will provide accurate information about crop status,, it will allow fast and accurate crop monitoring (prediction and prevention) give innovative cultivation insights.
Flax growers will be able to manage their fields more efficiently, obtain higher yields per field using less crop protection products.
The monitoring tool will be available via the existing WatchITgrow web platform that can be expanded, thanks to the Flaxsense 2.0. LA project, to meet the specific needs and challenges of the flax sector.
Flax sector 2.0
Not only is the flax industry very valuable to Flanders as Flemish heritage, in recent years, flax has also gained in importance because the natural flax fibers can be used as a functional raw material for innovative, often high-tech material applications.
The monitoring tool is being developed at the explicit request of and with the flax sector, that recognizes the growth potential of the tool, among other things thanks to the rejuvenation within the sector, which attaches great importance to risk spreading and sustainability.
