Lantmännen BioAgri receives research funds to use AI to reduce the environmental impact of agriculture

By using AI, Lantmännen BioAgri has developed a model that shortens the analysis time before Thermoseed treatment. The company has now been granted funds from Vinnova to further develop the model so that a greater proportion of the seed throughout Europe can be treated with the environmentally friendly method.

ThermoSeed is an environmentally friendly method of seed treatment where steam and heat are used to remove seed-borne diseases. Seed batches have different properties, and each batch must therefore be analysed before individual optimal treatment can be carried out. The analysis, which currently takes a couple of weeks to complete, consists of treating the seed, evaluating the seed’s shooting power and control effect by cultivating in soil to finally determine the optimal treatment. 

“The biggest limitation of ThermoSeed today is that it takes a long time to analyse the seed before treatment. The two weeks the analysis takes are often not available between harvest and autumn sowing here in Sweden, which means that today we mainly use ThermoSeed for spring-sown crops”, says Anders Krafft, Lantmännen BioAgri’s CEO.

In 2023, Lantmännen BioAgri, together with tech-partner company Elvenite, ran the research project Speed Seed, financed by Lantmännen’s research foundation, to use machine learning to streamline the seed analysis before ThermoSeed treatment.  Lantmännen has used ThermoSeed for seed treatment since 2008 and has collected and saved data from each treated batch. This data has been used to build a prediction model that can predict the optimal treatment intensity for different seed batches without conducting trial treatments. The project has been successful and has resulted in a model that appears to work well for Swedish conditions. The model will continue to be evaluated but could probably be used on a large scale in Sweden within a year.

“By shortening the analysis time from two weeks to a few days, we will also be able to ThermoSeed treat autumn-sown seed which in a few weeks will have the time to be threshed, transported, analysed, treated, distributed, and sown. This creates completely new opportunities for increasing the proportion of ThermoSeed treated seed”, says Anders Krafft.

Today, ThermoSeed is used in around another ten countries in Europe and North America. As in Sweden, the limitation lies in the long analysis time. Therefore, Vinnova has granted Lantmännen BioAgri’s application within the call for “AI for advanced digitalisation” where the research funds enable further development of the machine learning model to increase the proportion of environmentally friendly treated seed also internationally.

“If we achieve successful results during the next three years that the Speed Seed project runs, I see huge potential for ThermoSeed in Europe, North America and in Asia. We will then be able to contribute to reducing the climate impact from agriculture in large parts of the world”, says Anders Krafft.