MOVI - Mobile Solutions for Removing Foreign Cereal Crops

Mobile Solutions for Removing Foreign Cereal Crops (MOVI) pilots a method for identifying, locating, and assisting the removal of unwanted cereal plants in pure oat production. The project is carried out by the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) and the Finnish Geospatial Research Institute (FGI) of the National Land Survey of Finland together with an innovation group of pure oat farmers. The project is implemented in the South Ostrobothnia region, a major area for the production of pure oats free from contamination by other cereals.

Previous projects have demonstrated that high-resolution drone imagery combined with artificial intelligence can detect unwanted cereal plants and determine their coordinates in oat fields. MOVI aims to accelerate this process so that location data can be made available as quickly as possible for removal operations. The project also develops practical tools to support the removal process. These include a mobile application that guides workers directly to the target plants and a feasibility study on whether a drone-mounted cutting device could remove unwanted plants automatically.

The primary beneficiaries of the project are pure oat producers, whose workload related to manual weed and foreign cereal removal can be reduced. More broadly, the project benefits the entire food supply chain, including consumers. People requiring pure oat products, such as those with coeliac disease, may particularly benefit, as increased automation can reduce production costs and potentially lower the price of end products.

MOVI is a European Innovation Partnership (EIP) project funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development. Funding has been granted by the Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment (ELY Centre) for South Ostrobothnia.