Determination of the requirements on plant protection agents

1. A method for determining an amount required by crop plants in a field of one or a plurality of plant protection agents, comprising the following steps:

(A) detecting inhomogeneities in the field, wherein the inhomogeneities indicate different existing and/or future growth stages of the crop plants in the field,

(B) segmenting the field into partial areas based on the inhomogeneities detected in step (A),

(C) providing a plant growth model for the crop plants cultivated in the field,

(D) using the plant growth model on each partial area, wherein temporal growth behavior of the crop plant is simulated for each partial area,

(E) determining a requirement of at least a portion of the crop plants cultivated in the field for treatment with one or a plurality of plant protection agents, and

(F) calculating a partial-area-specific required amount of one or a plurality of plant protection agents based on the simulated temporal growth behavior in step (D) and the requirement determined in step (E).

2. A method for treating crop plants in a field with one or a plurality of plant protection agents, comprising the following steps:

(A) detecting inhomogeneities in the field, wherein the inhomogeneities indicate different existing and/or future growth stages of the crop plants in the field,

(B) segmenting the field into partial areas based on the inhomogeneities detected in step (A),

(C) providing a plant growth model for the crop plants cultivated in the field,

(D) using the plant growth model on each partial area, wherein temporal growth behavior of the crop plant is simulated for each partial area,

(E) determining a requirement of at least a portion of the crop plants cultivated in the field for treatment with one or a plurality of plant protection agents,

(F) calculating a partial-area-specific required amount of one or a plurality of plant protection agents based on the simulated temporal growth behavior of step (D) and based on the requirement determined in step (E),

(G) preparing a partial-area-specific application map, wherein the application map is a digital representation of the field that indicates for individual partial areas of the field the respective amount(s) of (the) plant protection agent(s) to be applied, and

(H) applying one or a plurality of plant protection agents using the partial-area-specific application map.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein in step (A), remote sensing data on the field are analyzed, NDVI or LAI values for individual partial areas of the field are calculated, and the NDVI or LAI values are referred to for calculating the partial-area-specific required amount of one or a plurality of plant protection agents in step (F).

4. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein a digital image of the field produced by means of remote sensors is used in step (A) and a partial area is assigned to each pixel of the digital image.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein a digital image of the field produced by means of remote sensors is used in step (A) and adjacent pixels of the digital image that indicate the same value with respect to a growth parameter or no longer deviate from one another as a preset value are combined into a partial area.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1 , characterized in that a prediction model is used for determining the requirement in step (E).

7. The method as claimed in claim 1 , characterized in that the size of the partial areas is adapted to a spray width of an application machine.

8. The method as claimed in claim 1 , characterized in that the plant protection agent is a herbicide, fungicide, or pesticide.

9. A system comprising

(a) a digital representation of a field in which crop plants are cultivated, wherein inhomogeneities are recorded in the digital representation, wherein the inhomogeneities provide information on different existing and/or future growth stages of the crop plants in the field,

(b) means for segmenting the digital representation into partial areas based on the inhomogeneities,

(c) a plant growth model for the crop plants cultivated in the field,

(d) means for using the plant model on each partial area,

(e) means for receiving a requirement of at least a portion of the cultivated crop plants for treatment with one or a plurality of plant protection agents,

(f) means for calculating the required amount of one or a plurality of plant protection agents for each partial area based on simulations of growth behavior of the crop plants, and

(g) means for producing a partial-area-specific application map, wherein the application map is a digital representation of the field that indicates for individual partial areas of the field the respective amount(s) of (the) plant protection agent(s) to be applied.

10. The system as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the digital representation of the field is based on a satellite image and the inhomogeneities are different vegetation indices or leaf area indices.

11. A non-transitory storage medium on which a computer program is stored, which can be loaded into a working memory of a computer and causes the computer to carry out the following steps:

(i) reading a digital representation of a field in which crop plants are cultivated into the working memory of the computer, wherein the field in the digital representation is subdivided into partial areas, wherein at least a portion of the partial areas differ with respect to existing and/or future growth behavior of the cultivated crop plants,

(ii) calculating the growth behavior of the crop plants cultivated in the field over time for each individual partial area by means of a plant growth model,

(iii) receiving a requirement of at least a portion of the cultivated crop plants for treatment with one or a plurality of plant protection agents,

(iv) calculating the required amount of the one or plurality of plant protection agent(s) for each partial area based on a calculated growth stage for the respective partial area of the crop plants cultivated there, and

(v) outputting the plant protection agent requirement for each partial area to a user.