BASF

The development of agricultural phytosanitary products is constantly focused on improving their effectiveness and enhancing sustainability in farming operations.

This is something BASF knows very well, having led the research and production of fungicides, herbicides, insecticides, and more for many years. Now, in an increasingly digitalized world, they have sought to go even further by finding ways to make the development process itself more efficient.

When it comes to developing new insecticides, trials have traditionally been assessed manually by counting the number of insects one by one on crop leaves a tedious task that could easily lead to potential inaccuracies.

TECNALIA and BASF have collaborated with the goal of developing a reliable solution to digitalize and automate both the counting of insects and the subsequent access to collected data and reported results.

“To this end, we have created a mobile application and a platform that digitalizes and automates these processes. This solution, which incorporates artificial intelligence, enables reliable and repeatable analysis and performs automatic image processing to identify insect types and quantify their presence on each leaf and plant across the various greenhouse trials”, explains Laura Gómez, researcher at TECNALIA in Industry and Mobility, and Next Generation Factory.

“This new digitalization process accelerates the development of new products and allows for faster, data-driven decision-making based on more objective information. The solution is already registered for reporting official results of insecticide trials and is being used at BASF trial stations around the world”, notes Xavier Ribera, Head of Communication, Government Affairs and Sustainability, BASF Spain & Portugal.

Thanks to this jointly developed project, they have created an effective AI-powered application that enhances sustainability, offering a clear dual benefit both economic and social.

On one hand, farmers benefit from more efficient R&D processes that lead to crop protection innovations tailored to their specific needs; on the other hand, society benefits from more effective and sustainable products that ensure food quality.