New digital technologies for managing winegrape production and quality
Summary
Objective
The objective of this project is to further develop, field-test, validate and prepare for commercialisation shortlisted digital technologies developed through associated projects CSA 1601 and CSA 1602. The ultimate goal is to develop useful technologies for grapegrowers that provide more accurate and faster measurements of yield, canopy structure, early detection of disease presence, and crop condition and composition. The project has evolved to include the further development of the CSIRO-developed ProxiCrop thermal sensor for irrigation management.
Background
The development of digital technology that can generate objective information about the status of soil, water and crops holds promise of substantial productivity benefits for Australian farmers. A recent study estimated that these benefits could potentially deliver a 25 per cent improvement in the gross value of Australian agriculture. During 2016–20, Wine Australia and the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment invested in several projects through the Rural R&D for Profit Program to explore digital technologies that may be of benefit to Australian grape producers. Two of these projects involved research and co-investment from CSIRO:
- New technologies for dynamic canopy and disease management – project CSA 1601
- New non-destructive technologies for simultaneous yield, crop condition and quality estimation – project CSA 1602
These two projects produced a range of technologies at various stages of ‘technological readiness’ (TRL) that can define canopy size and structure ‘on-the-go’, measure vine nutritional and disease status remotely using hyperspectral imaging, and estimate yield at various growth stages. The most promising of these outputs – as selected by the sector project reference group – were then transferred to the current project CSA 1701-3.1 for further development and potential commercialisation. The current project is also refining the ProxiCrop vine water status sensor and exploring commercialisation opportunities for it. The ProxiCrop device is mounted above the vine canopy and uses a low-cost thermal camera and a digital camera combined with adaptive image analysis to determine canopy temperature, which can be used as an indicator of vine water status.
Research approach
The approach involves the continued development of the identified technologies in parallel with the implementation of a commercialisation plan for each. In-vineyard validation of the high TRL technology in partnership with grapegrowers is a focus of this project.
Sector benefits
The project will deliver technologies that better inform grapegrowers of the status of their vineyard so that management can be optimised. This should lead to savings in time and labour, and other inputs (water, fuel) and improvements in profitability through the identification of vineyard variability. For example, the yield estimation tools collect reproducible data in a fraction of the time required currently to do this mundane task using the standard, visual (counting) method. The new tools will provide greater confidence in yield estimation.