Activities

4.1. Monitoring, sensorisation and digitisation of agricultural and forestry farms to increase crop yields and productions

The crop cycle is conditioned by the availability of water, nutrients and climate, which have a direct impact on yields. Thus, monitoring and sensorisation of the different parameters that define crop yields is essential for precise crop management. The action focuses on 4 economically important crops in both Spain and Portugal: olive trees, tomatoes, pastures and vines. 

Initially, the different plots will be identified. Afterwards, a diagnosis will be made and, depending on the type of crops and their needs, the necessary information will be identified: type of sensors, sensorisation technique, type of communication, etc. Afterwards, a workflow survey of the field will be carried out and the different types of data will be defined in order to create the basis for the elaboration of models for the life cycle of the crops. The focus will be given to the physiological state and phenology of the crops, the hydric and sanitary state and the identification of critical moments in each of the production modes.   

The field workflow will be carried out in parallel with data collection from the different plots to create a dataset (production history, climatic data, plant water status, phenological response, mapping of the productive area, monitoring of phytosanitary status and application of phytopharmaceuticals; and data collected from the different types of sensors). Data collection in the commercial plots will be through questionnaires and interviews with growers, and in the experimental plots through sensorisation. The data collected will be integrated into a data management platform that will be created to explore models generated by artificial intelligence and machine learning to develop decision support tools.

Lead: SFCOLAB
Participants: CICYTEX, UEVORA, UEX, INIAV, CTAEX