CIPC has been banned since last year. It was a practical and cheap solution to limit the sprouting of potatoes. Numerous alternative solutions are proposed by professionals, and Arvalis - Institut du végétal - is evaluating their efficiency to accompany the potato industry in the " Post CIPC " period.
The number of trials has been increasing rapidly for several years, and at the Villers-Saint-Christophe R&D station, the Arvalis teams have 20 small " autonomous " storage cells to carry out their trials. For each sample, they calculate a germination index and take measurements several times during the storage campaign. Within the context of the work implemented by Arvalis to digitize its acquisition of references (and in particular the Digistation project in Hauts-de-France, co-financed by the European Union with the ERDF, with the support of the Hauts-de-France region) the automation of these long and repetitive notations became a priority.
Arvalis was aware of Eurocelp's expertise in the detection and recognition of defects on potatoes. Both naturally started to exchange on the subject. The technical teams sat down to draw up a set of specifications.
The game was far from being won in advance, the project took place in 2 phases. The first phase - the POC or proof of concept - validated the technological feasibility of the idea. The second phase - design and manufacturing - ended with the delivery of the prototype by Eurocelp to Arvalis last June.
The results are impressive: the analysis time is divided by three, the human time is divided by twelve and the scoring is significantly more repeatable (without operator change or fatigue ). The accuracy is satisfactory despite the diversity of shape and color of the germs.
For Eurocelp, this project is another challenge successfully met. " It is a great proof for the whole potato sector of our expertise and our ability to meet the specific needs of our customers". Discussions with Arvalis have already begun for other collaborations. "Relying on the industry's technical institute to develop our new solutions will be a major asset for the future".
Luc Deroulers
Eurocelp SAS
Hôtel d'entreprises - Activity 9
13 rue Marie Curie
10430 Rosières-près-Troyes
Phone: +33 952 048 274
Cell. : +33 674 944 283
www.eurocelp.com