WEEDZAPPING: Electric weed control with low energy use

Electric weed control has traditionally had several drawbacks: 1. It was dangerous for the operator (but current technology is much safer), 2. high electricity consumption (but this solution should have significantly lower electricity consumption) and 3. far longer treatment time than herbicide spraying or tillage. But there are also many advantages of electric pest control: e.g. it can be used in organic farming and in water protection areas as it does not leave any chemical residues, electricity can be produced anywhere and therefore strengthens the resilience of Swedish agriculture (almost all plant protection is currently imported); weed control with electricity is also practical for autonomous solutions, as everything from the propulsion to the control mechanism can then be based on electricity. Also, one benefit of electric weed control is that it can affect the underground parts of the weeds, making it one of the few non-chemical alternatives to tillage that can affect perennial weeds.

In WEEDZAPPING we will: 

1. Evaluate an electrical low energy control (ELEC) method against annual and perennial weeds in a) sugar beet, b) potato, and c) wheat.
2. Determine the crop-weed selectivity of the ELEC method (i.e. whether it can kill weed plants close to the crop without damaging the crop) in the abovementioned crops.
3. Evaluate the effectiveness of using ELEC as part of an integrated weed control strategy against perennial weeds, using couch grass (Elymus repens) as a model weed.
4. Perform a cost-benefit analysis of the ELEC in different scenarios. 

Today, the electric method is available as a handheld prototype that is designed to treat one plant at a time. In WEEDZAPPING, a version will be developed that can treat weeds over an area. It would also be possible to attach it to a robotic platform for autonomous precision weed control.

The funding for the project comes from the Swedish Agricultural Research Foundation, as well as in-kind from Enlightened Detection AB (contributing the electrical equipment) and Lyckeby starch (contributing with expertise and potato fields).