POSTAL ADDRESS

Burg. Van Gansberghelaan 115

9820 Merelbeke

Belgium

WORKING TEAM

Dr. David Nuyttens

Dr. Jürgen Vangeyte

Dr. Ingrid Zwertvaegher

SHORT BIO

ILVO, the Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, focusses on performing and coordinating policy-supporting scientific research and the associated public service in view of a sustainable agriculture and fishery in an economic, ecological and social perspective. 

Specifically, the Agricultural Engineering Section of the Technology and Food Science Unit of ILVO is involved in the OPTIMA project. This group develops and assesses novel and existing techniques and their integration into innovative production systems in the framework of a sustainable agriculture and horticulture. The research focusses on (i) Environmental Technology, (ii) Precision Livestock Farming and (iii) Precision Crop Farming. The latter works on using innovative sensors for crop and field sensing, the optimization of (site specific) application techniques for fertilizers and plant protection products and development of agricultural machinery prototypes. They actively participate in different national and international research projects and working groups (ISO, OECD, CEN). This expertise resulted in about 50 peer reviewed publications the last 5 years.

ILVO has a very broad network in precision farming and spray application technology with all relevant stakeholders (universities, research institutes and extension research stations) and a wide experience in EU and international projects (Drive4EU, ICT-Agri, 4D4F, Sempatico, IoF2020, INNOSETA, ICARES).

INVOLVEMENT IN OPTIMA

WP1

ILVO also contributes in the community building for the design of the novel IPM system.

WP2

In addition, the expertise of ILVO with remote sensing and image acquisition and processing will contribute to WR for the development of the early detection methods

WP4

The experience of ILVO in pesticide application technology, precision agriculture, agricultural machinery prototyping, will significantly contribute to a successful project execution. Based on this expertise, ILVO leads WP4 in which innovative spraying technologies will be developed in close collaboration with spray manufacturers (FEDE, CAFFINI) and other research groups.

WP5

ILVO will also participate in the pilot testing of the developed technologies based on its expertise with field testing of spray application technologies.

WP7

ILVO can fall back on an extensive (inter)national network of many different stakeholders to participate in the dissemination and exploitation activities of the project.