Precision pollination for improved nutrition and shelf life

Strawberries are one of the most commercially important fruit crops in the UK and are good sources of nutrients including vitamin C. Insect pollination is vital to the production of commercial strawberries and is required to ensure a successful and marketable crop. Over or underpollination can lead to low quality and misshapen fruit that is not suitable for sale. Effective pollination can also increase the shelf-life of berries and is likely to influence their nutritional content.

This project will further develop acoustic sensors to monitor pollinator activity in strawberry farms. These sensors will identify areas of over/underpollination, which will inform interventions to influence pollinator activity. Growers currently have few options for how to alter pollinator behaviour, therefore as part of this project an attractant/repellent for commercial bumblebee colonies will be developed to influence the foraging of bumblebees over the short-term, especially in young bumblebees.

Trials will be done at NIAB to provide data for calibration of sensors with pollinator activity and fruit quality. It will also investigate whether lures affect pollinator activity on a larger scale than initial laboratory trials. Berries will be harvested from these experiments and the fruit quality, nutritional profile and shelf life will be measured to understand the impact of pollinator recruitment to open flowers on these characteristics.

This project would have significant benefits for growers, retailers and consumers by:

* Improving the nutritional content of strawberries (vitamin C/phenolics/antioxidants)
* Increasing marketable yield of strawberries by reducing misshapes associated with under/overpollination
* Improving shelf-life of strawberries, reducing in-shop/at-home wastage
* Delivering technologies that can be used to improve yield/shelf-life/nutritional-content of other crops reliant on pollination.