Improving the precision of strawberry pollination
Title: Precision pollination for improved nutrition and shelf-life
Funder: Innovate UK: Better Food for All
Industry partners: AgriSound, CHAP, PheroSyn, Biobest
Term: September 2023 to August 2025
Project leader: Sarah Arnold
For many years, commercial strawberry growers have employed bumblebees to pollinate strawberry crops grown under polythene tunnel and glasshouse structures. Research has demonstrated how bee visits to flowers increase the proportion of ovules fertilised in the flower, leading to increased berry weight and fewer malformed fruits. Strawberries pollinated by bees are also known to have longer shelf-life compared to wind and self-pollinated crops. However, are we achieving complete levels of pollination to maximise nutrition and shelf-life?
The project
AgriSound has developed a sensor for use in the field that employs acoustic detection methods to detect and count functional groups of insects, including pollinators. This will be tested in the project to see how reliably it can measure pollinator activity within strawberry crops. It will enable growers to detect areas of high or low pollinator activity which could negatively affect the crop. NIAB will assess new tools (produced by PheroSyn) that will redirect insect activity from areas with excessive pollination to those with insufficient pollination. The effect of pollination on strawberry quality, nutritional content and shelf-life will also be investigated.