The Netherland's Wageningen University has organized an international challenge aimed at boosting vegetable production using artificial intelligence and autonomous greenhouses. 

Wageningen said it is working with Chinese internet service provider Tencent to explore new ways of feeding more people, delivering greater food security.

Teams participating in this challenge will run a 'greenhouse compartment', leaving a computer and machine learning algorithms to make the decisions.

The university explained greenhouses are very efficient as they have high production levels in a small production area. Typically, production in a greenhouse is up to 10-times higher than in an open field, and much less water is used.

It added a controlled environment such as a greenhouse provides more security to the plants themselves and a reduction in pesticide use, leading to production of safer vegetables with less residue.

In an autonomous greenhouse, the use of sensors and cameras allows the computer to control the climate, allowing the grower to manage the greenhouse from a distance.

In this way, the competition can operate on an international level, as teams from all over the world can access their greenhouse, while experts from Wageningen will monitor the results of the teams, from the resources input to the crop production output.

www.freshfruitportal.com