Melon Necrosis consultancy project
Innovative image detection
One of our most well-known consultancy projects is for Agrícola Famosa, the world's largest supplier of yellow honeydew melons in Brazil. Here, TechNature used various modern image detection techniques to find a way to filter out melons that will show damage from the necrotic spot virus at a very early stage.
The yellow honeydew melon is susceptible to developing this spot virus. It can arise from cultivation conditions, cooling, and processing. The question Agrícola Famosa asked us:
'How do the spots on yellow honeydew melons develop? And how can we use this information to detect at an early stage whether brown spots will develop?'
More insight thanks to detection technology
During the project, various detection techniques were applied, such as spectroscopy, multi-spectral imaging, chlorophyll fluorescence, and color imaging. Different detection techniques gave different images, allowing, for example, the characteristic edges on a melon and possible causes of the spot virus to be visualized.
From the Netherlands to Brazil
The consultancy project was carried out partly in the Netherlands and partly in Brazil. Detection techniques were tested in the Netherlands and further developed on-site. The result is that Agrícola Famosa can now sort melons before spots become visible on the outside of the melon. The affected melons can thus be separated from the rest.