Visit by the delegation from the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture

We were delighted to welcome the Inspector General and two research managers from the Ministry of Agriculture in Iraq together with the Managing Director of Russell IPM. The purpose of the meeting was to consider if we can help the Iraqi Government to identify diseases affecting date palm trees such as Dubas. Managing and eradicating these diseases are essential for Iraq’s agriculture and economy.

The delegation explained the problem and the challenges they face in protecting date palm trees from diseases as shown in the examples below. They are keen to use automated solutions for early detection of diseases in order to take preventive measures at the earliest.

The Department presented its research on image analysis and pattern recognition used for Biometrics and automated medical image analysis. We explained how similar solutions could be developed and applied to detect diseases in date palm trees. We are convinced that, together with Russell IPM, we can develop credible solutions to deal with this problem.

Kim Corthouts (Applied Computing Intern)