Laser Zentrum Hannover (LZH) is presenting its specialized agriculture-focused laser weed management technology at this week’s Agrotechnica expo in Hannover, Germany.
Under the marketing slogan “Lasers instead of pesticides”, the LZH-developed Farming 4.0 technology is making its industry debut during the Agrtechnica, between November 10th to 16th, at the Pavilion of the state of Niedersachsen (Hall 21, stand A05).
Agritechnica is the world's leading trade fair for agricultural technology, organized by the German Agricultural Society (DLG), all the leading companies in the industry present their innovations. Agritechnica is the showcase of the global agricultural engineering industry and a forum for the future of plant production.
The new anti-weeds approach developed by the LZH is based on the non-contact, optical interaction of light with biological material: first of all, a system of cameras is used to distinguish weeds from crops. This is the basis for subsequently using laser radiation to precisely destroy any weeds and thus help crops to gain a decisive growth advantage.
LZH comments that by this means the use of herbicides can be “drastically reduced”. Since laser radiation acts purely physically, no plant resistances are allowed to form, the quality of the soil can be maintained and beneficial minerals and the like in the soil are protected. In