With the current global trends in agricultural crop production, growers of tree fruit, citrus, nuts, vine crops, and vegetables can use increasingly affordable digital tools and online programs to keep detailed, production data they can analyze and adapt for the following year’s crop and intensively manage variability across their operations. This is firming under protected environment. because producers of horticultural crops generally are more reliant on hand labour and are closer in the food chain to processors and end-use consumers than are grain producers, horticulture trends offer them the additional promise of automation and track-and-trace in the field, in the packinghouse, and beyond. In this paper, we are going to look at various techniques that have led to horticulture crop production increase.
Yield monitoring
Yield monitoring has been done in many crop plantations for years now. The reason is simple: All growers can tell you there is significant yield variability within the acres, but now they will be able to measure it. The advantage is that growers can implement zonal vineyard management. Rather than being managed uniformly, as is now typical, individual acres can be split into zones in which the management of both inputs to, and outputs from, the production system can be applied differentially. While it would be difficult with current technology to adapt a system for hand-harvested crops, it would seem to be quite a boon to other mechanized crops. California’s big three nut crops – almonds, walnuts, and pistachios – seem to be excellent candidates. Zonal management with the use of yield monitors would enable nut growers to boost per-acre yields – a significant advantage with the cost of suitable land for tree nut crops soaring Lobell et al (2007). The market is huge, as the bearing acreage of the big three nut crops in the Golden State now tops 1.5 million acres.
Precision irrigation
A good current trend example of the potential for this technology is Fagerberg produce a grower of about 1,300 acres of onions in Eaton(Waskom, 2016). The grower has figured out how to produce a high-yielding onion crop and save water at the same time. The farm is noted as the first to purchase autopilot GPS to install drip tape within sub-centimetre accuracy. Today, with the help of his smartphone, Rod Weimer, Fagerberg’s farm manager, can check rates, start and stop fertilizer, and water from virtually anywhere thanks to a fully automated drip irrigation system. Since installing drip irrigation, the farm has reduced its water usage by 40% and gone from using 3.5-acre-feet of water when flood-irrigating to only 1.6-acre-feet using drip.
Robotics
Availability and affordability of labour is a perpetual pain point in crop production. Grimmway farms in Bakersfield hopes to be on track to a solution (Wang 2013). The company has been testing a concept from the world of ornamental flowers and plants. growing plants in pots – to see if it can work in the broad expanses of vegetable fields. Rather than have teams of field workers handle those pots, Grimmway is piloting the ability of robots to move the plants out into the field to grow then bring them back in at the end of the season for the early harvest.
Internet of Things wireless connectivity
Systems like Climate field view pro already use Bluetooth to digitally display real-time field data on an iPad as equipment passes through the field, then store it in the cloud. But as reported early this year, small-scale but high-value horticulture operations like Hahn Family Wines in Soledad can take an Internet of Things approach to monitor a host of environmental and growing conditions in real-time. Using 4G cell service provided by Verizon AgTech, Hahn last fall installed sensors every six acres in its vineyards to measure soil moisture, humidity, and temperature. The resulting analytics enable the operation to make better decisions about when to water, how to spot irrigation leaks when to apply crop protection materials, and when to harvest.
Unmanned aerial systems (UAS)
Interest in the use of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) is moving from novelty to practical applications in agriculture. With the Federal Aviation Administration guiding the legal use of small commercial UAS, the technology is set to take off in Florida specialty crop production. Researchers have been seeking applications for the aircraft, including identification of greening – a devastating disease in citrus – and the ability to estimate the fruit production on trees. A scientist at the University of Central Florida is developing systems that utilize UAS to scout strawberry fields. When the imagery collected by the UAS identifies a potential problem, it signals a ground robot to autonomously drive to the spot in the field to more closely inspect the area with higher-resolution imagery. Private companies are forming to offer the technology to growers as well. Highlands precision Ag, for example, will deploy its UAS on behalf of growers. “UAS is simply a vehicle to collect data on crops,” says Steve Maxwell, CEO of the company. “As cameras become more precise and big data becomes more accessible, the imagery will fundamentally change the agriculture industry both environmentally and even in the marketing of crops.”