Use of stress pre-conditioning, novel sensors and AMF to improve crop management, marketable yields, stress resilience and environmental sustainability of raspberry production

UK raspberry production was worth £109M in 2014, but a further 11KT of berries, worth £59M, are

imported each year. A 20% increase in the 14KT of fruit produced p.a. in the UK could be expected to

reduce imports by 2.8KT, and raise the value of the UK industry by £15.7M p.a.. However, improved on-

farm management of water and fertiliser inputs is needed to optimise productivity; currently, excessive

fertigation to substrate-grown raspberry result in vigorous cane growth which makes crop management

difficult and harvesting costly. Nutrient leaching also poses a risk to groundwater quality. We will use

novel affinity sensors combined with fuzzy logic to automatically adjust nutrient inputs to match plant

demand in real time, reduce fertiliser losses to the environment and improve berry quality. Stress

preconditioning and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) will be used to raise marketable yields, improve

resource use and acquisition, and increase crop resilience to stresses.