In March 2026, HelEx presented its work on automatic insect detection at the annual Seleopro Carrefour Tournesol. This gathering of sunflower breeders and agronomists is a recurring venue where HelEx progressively shares the most operational parts of its research with the industry.
Stan Chabert (INRAE) introduced the image-based and AI-driven methods developed within HelEx to automatically detect and classify insects visiting sunflower fields. These tools aim to replace or complement labour-intensive manual counts and to produce large, consistent datasets on pollinator activity.
For HelEx, showcasing such tools to the breeding industry is key: automated insect monitoring can become a shared infrastructure for variety evaluation, regulatory studies and agro-ecological research, with strong potential for uptake by the sector.
