Bakgrund
Elförbrukningen i norra Sverige kommer öka markant de närmaste tjugo åren. Samtidigt är självförsörjandegraden för livsmedel oroväckande låg i Norrbotten och många lantbrukare kämpar med lönsamheten. I södra Sverige och i kontinentala Europa är solsambruk (även kallat agriPV, agrivoltaics eller solbruk) på frammarsch och utlovar hög bibehållen livsmedelsproduktion och god elproduktion trots att de är förlagda till samma ytor, vilket skapar förutsättningar för ekonomisk lönsamhet för lantbrukare.

Motivering
Förutsättningarna för både solkraft och livsmedelsproduktion i Norrbotten skiljer sig från andra delar av Europa men man kan vänta sig synergier också här. Kunskap och pilotanläggningar för verkliga tester behövs dock för att bedöma vilken potential solsambruk verkligen har i norra Sverige och hur det bör implementeras för att kunna stärka lantbrukare, öka den regionala självförsörjningen av livsmedel samt möta den kommande efterfrågan på förnybar elkraft utan att medföra onödiga risker.

Genomförande
Denna förstudie är ett första steg i en tilltänkt trestegsraket bestående av följande: 1. Förstudie, 2. Forskningsprojekt med testanläggning, 3. Implementeringsprojekt. Förstudien delas upp i tre delar där den första handlar om att kartlägga befintlig och applicerbar relevant kunskap om solsambruk och lantbruksinriktningar, den andra om att utreda förutsättningarna på den tilltänkta platsen för testanläggningen, och den tredje att reda ut frågetecken och klarlägga vilka regelverk och tillstånd som krävs, samt förankra intresset hos aktörer i berörda branscher. 

Mål
Långsiktigt vill vi med projektet hjälpa Norrbotten till ökad solkraftsproduktion och hög livsmedelsresiliens till följd av hållbara jordbruk med god ekonomisk lönsamhet. I den här förstudien ska vi därför definiera, avgränsa och skapa goda förutsättningar för ett effektivt större forskningsprojekt med en verklig testanläggning, som i sin tur ska leda till värdefulla och implementerbara resultat.

The BREC project has taken a significant step forward with the release of a report on a Biorefinery Pilot Concept, marking an important milestone in advancing the circular bioeconomy. This output is designed to support agricultural schools and educational centers in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Germany, and Latvia by providing a detailed framework for a new biorefinery pilot plant where different technologies are combined.

The report outlines a concept aimed at utilizing local agricultural waste and residual materials to produce valuable products such as biogas, protein for animal feed, biofertilizers, and biomethane for vehicle fuel.

Through this report, the BREC project addresses the “analysis paralysis” often experienced in the agricultural sector due to the abundance of technologies. The biorefinery showcases how different technologies can be utilized in combination and the concept leverages local resources and waste streams, supporting a regional transition from linear to circular bioeconomic practices. Target groups will be able to use this resource to evaluate opportunities for building new or upgrading existing pilot plants, ultimately strengthening regional independence in energy and agricultural inputs. 

More information about the project and overview of all project outputs can be found here.

Background

Weeds must be managed to avoid crop losses, but today's large use of herbicides and tillage is problematic from both an environmental and production perspective. However, good alternatives are rare, which means that systems that do not use herbicides (e.g. organic farming) often have to use intensive tillage, and those that prohibit or restrict tillage (e.g. conservation agriculture (CA)) usually have to use a lot of herbicides. Perennial weeds are particularly problematic from this perspective. 

Aim

The aim of the IWM-CA project is to develop integrated strategies that reduce both herbicides and tillage and improve soil health for Swedish farmers with a focus on CA, regenerative agriculture and ploughless organic farming. The strategies will, among other things, integrate the newly developed root cutters that are effective at controlling perennial weeds with low soil disturbance – and can be used in cover crops and grassland.

Goals

• Develop a system where the horizontal root cutter and the vertical root cutter are integrated with cover crops, herbicides and shallow tillage within conservation agriculture, regenerative agriculture and ploughless organic agriculture.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of spot-applying horizontal root cutter on perennial weed patches in leys and pastures. 
• Evaluate the effect of HRC on perennial weed species not previously studied (e.g., Tussilago farfara [coltsfoot], Silene latifolia [white campion), Senecio jacobaea [ragwort], Rumex spp. [docks], Taraxacum officinale [dandelion]).
• Evaluate the economic cost-benefits of integrating HRC on example farms using CA, RA, or PLOF.

Financing

IWM-CA is financed by Swedish farmers' foundation for agricultural research. Kverneland Group AS provides the root cutters as in-kind. 

Background

Small-grain cereals are currently sown with a low level of precision, both in x-, y-, or z-dimensions. Low precision results in uneven emergence and poorly distributed plants, which affects internal competition in the row, crop nutrient utilisation, competitiveness against weeds and the risk of plant diseases, which affects the yield quality and quantity.

Aim

The project Precision seeding of small-grain cereals as a component of integrated pest management (IPM) will study whether precision sowing of cereals makes it possible to grow cereals with lower seed rate and pesticide use while maintaining or increasing the grain yield, thereby improving the economy of
Swedish small-grain cereal production. In the project a concept machine for precision sowing of cereals is evaluated both in small-scale field trials with different row distances and seeding rates, and in large-scale field demonstrations. The project will provide an economic and agronomic analysis of the benefits and costs of precision sowing small-grain cereals and as a part of integrated pest management.

Funding and collaboration partners

Precision seeding of small-grain cereals as a component of integrated pest management is financed by the JTI-foundation and is a collaboration between RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, HIR Skåne, Lantmännen and Väderstad. Several of the trials will be conducted at Lantmännens future farms Svalöv och Bjertorp. Väderstad contributes with the precision sowing machine as in-kind.   

Docks (Rumex spp.) are some of the most problematic weed species in grasslands worldwide. The most common problematic dock species in Sweden are broad-leaved dock (Rumex obtusifolius), northern dock (Rumex longifolius) och curly dock (Rumex crispus). Docks reduce the quality and yield of grassland crops by outcompeting higher yielding and more nutritious crop plants. Furthermore, docks contain substances that are unhealthy for livestock if consumed in high doses. The most common methods for controlling docks are herbicides and tillage (primarily ploughing). Currently there are not many effective alternative control methods, which makes docks a bottleneck in the expansion of organically managed grassland and forces reduced-till systems to rely heavily on herbicides. To control docks without herbicides, farmers are forced to dig up the taproots manually or renew the grassland early by ploughing. Hot water and electricity have also been tested but is slow and requires a lot of resources. 

The SUSDOCK-project will:

1. Develop automatic image-based mapping and targeting of dock species that is adapted to Nordic grasslands. 
2. Generate new knowledge about the relationship between dock occurrence and explanatory abiotic and biotic factors on Nordic farms. 
3. Evaluate integrated strategies for controlling docks in grassland and during grassland renewal with minimal tillage and herbicide use. For example, using the horizontal root cutter to disturb the Docks prior to applying hot water or electricity to reduce the water and/or energy use. 
4. Evaluate spot-application of herbicides by new platforms like unmanned aerial sprayers and robots. 

Det finns ett forskningsgap mellan skog och slutprodukt avseende helhetssyn på det sågade materialets egenskaper av björk från svensk skog. Sådan kunskap kan användas för att optimera produktmixens värde och även bättre förstå förutsättningar i det rådande produktionssystemet. Skogforsk har en pågående studie där man samlar björk som kan förväntas finnas i framtida skogar. Detta kompletterande projekt studerar dess egenskaper för sågade produkter genom att stockarna sågas, torkas och mäts avseende egenskaper på plank och brädnivå.

Kunskap om stockkvalitet (mätdata, röntgen) sammankopplad med virkeskvalitet (skannerdata och provning) möjliggör en helhetssyn på björken och genom simuleringsmöjligheter av kvalitetsutfallet möjliggörs utveckling av produktmixen från sågverken genom ex. nya produkter för konstruktion. Tillämpat leder resultaten till vinster för skogsägaren genom ökad betalningsvilja från de mer konkurrenskraftiga sågverken och i förlängningen fler sågverk som satsar på björk. Projektet genomför provning genom sågning och efterföljande experiment för framtagning av kvalitetsdata i skanner samt hållfasthetsprovning. Datan sammanställs för en simuleringsmiljö där även stockdata och om möjligt röntgendata används. Röntgen av björk har inte gjorts i industriell miljö tidigare.

Projektets resultat ger förutsättningar för sågverken, både existerande och nya aktörer, att bättre kunna förstå förändringar i en produktmix. Därmed underlättar projektets simuleringsmöjligheter dialog mellan köpare och säljare. Den sammankopplade datan mellan skog och såg är unik och kan användas för att skapa uppdaterade apteringsinstruktioner i skogen alternativt verifiera existerande instruktioner. Resultaten möjliggör för aktörer att förenkla och påskynda sin produktutveckling för nya innovativa björkbaserade produkter.

Interest in thermal treatment, e.g. pyrolysis, of municipal sewage sludge has increased in Sweden in recent years. For smaller wastewater treatment plants, an investment in pyrolysis may become more attractive if cooperation between plants is established and the treatment is carried out regionally.

This study investigates the conditions for pyrolysis of sewage sludge in the Halland region. The study maps existing sludge volumes in Halland and investigates potential benefits of using sludge biochar in agriculture. Also, regulations relevant to the pyrolysis of sludge and the use of sludge biochar are analyzed, as well as the economic conditions for pyrolysis and related sludge logistics.

Image analysis has revolutionized research fields from medicine to nature conservation. Weed research is an area where image analysis has both create potential but also many challanges. Identifying small green weeds among many similar small crop plants is not easy — especially when doing so from a vehicle moving over uneven terrain and large field areas. Recently, however, significant advances have been made in methods for identifying different weed species using artificial intelligence (AI)-based image analysis.

Automatic weed identification could enable species-specific weed control, reducing both the amount of pesticides, such as glyphosate/Round-Up, and the need for tillage. Furthermore, it could help weed researchers study how the weed flora is affected by different practices, such as leys and cover crops, reduced plowing, the creation of flower strips, and other methods associated with environmental farming practices. In this way, it would be possible to design cropping systems that require fewer pesticides and less tillage to manage weeds — creating better conditions for preserving soil health and biodiversity. It could even allow for the design of cropping systems that retain some weeds to support biodiversity. After all, weeds are not just weeds; they are plants that can provide food for pollinators, serve as hosts for beneficial natural enemies of pests, increase soil carbon storage, and reduce nutrient runoff. However, to keep weeds at a level where they don’t cause significant yield losses — without the control measures themselves harming surrounding ecosystems — we need to know where the weeds are in the field and which species are present. This knowledge is essential for implementing targeted and resource-efficient management strategies.

AI-based image analysis for automatic weed identification works well in theory, but for it to be useful in weed research (and eventually in agriculture), it needs to be tested and applied in practice. PRACTICAL WISION is a collaboration between RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Hushållningssällskapet Skåne, and NBR Nordic Beet Research. Together, we will: (1) evaluate how well AI-based image analysis can identify and map different weed species in Swedish field trials, (2) build an iterative process for collecting high-quality, annotated weed images from Swedish field trials (to be published as open-access) — leading to continuously improving weed recognition, and (3) further develop AI models to make them more suitable for field trial applications. This is the first step toward bringing AI-based image analysis into practical weed research — a crucial step for developing more sustainable cropping systems that secure future food supply while promoting ecosystem and biodiversity conservation.

PRACTICAL WISION is funded by FORMAS.