Drone based imagery shows the potential to highlight differences in crop status pertaining to nematode populations in soybean. In addition, integrating the imagery with machine learning models enables yield estimation much before harvest up to an accuracy of 87%. This provides growers with insights into crop health and yield conditions prompting for timely management decisions such as application of fertilizer or fungicides and irrigation. In addition, growers would also benefit from preharvest yield estimations for harvest, storage, and sales planning. This helps to realize optimal yield.

Faba bean (Vicia faba L.), also known as fava bean, broad bean, horse bean, or Windsor bean, is a leguminous crop used as food, feed, forage, or cover crop in different parts of the world. This crop can be used for food, feed, and as a ground cover crop. It is highly nutritious and has high protein content, the second after soybean when comparing with the common grown legumes including, dry beans, lentils, peas, cowpeas, and chickpeas. The high protein content makes faba bean an excellent source for plant-based foods, like meat and milk. Compared to the other cool-season legumes such as pea and lupin, faba bean can attain and fix substantially more nitrogen from the atmosphere to soil. Because of temperature increase during summer, a winter crop can ensure cropping system diversification while minimizing the negative effects of summer heat on yield and economic return, and this crop can potentially be faba bean. A USDA-funded project at the Virginia Tech’ s Tidewater Agricultural Research and Extension Center (TAREC) in Suffolk, VA, is focused on introduction of faba bean as a winter seed crop with multiple benefits for the Mid-Atlantic cropping systems. The project includes collaborators from the University of Maryland, University of Delaware, North Carolina State University, and University of Georgia, in addition to the Virginia State University and Virginia Tech. Started in 2023 and lasting until 2027, the project will address objectives related to cultivar development through breeding, genetics and physiological strategies, identification of the best agronomic practices to maximize yield and economic return, economic and marketing logistics, and consumer acceptance. As the results became available, the PI will provide updates on this new crop for the region.