Increase Kiwifruit Yields
Smart Agriculture
Increase Kiwifruit Yields
Smart Agriculture
Sensitive Kiwifruit yields increase with Smart farming strategy and accurate precision irrigation
Kiwifruit is one of the most sensitive fruits in terms of quality, which is defined by size, sweetness and dry matter. In order to reach the best quality, it is essential for New Zealand farmers to develop a good irrigation strategy to grow marketable products and reduce fruit losses. This project installed two different wireless sensors to monitor soil water status to enable Smart irrigation plans in a kiwifruit orchard.
The sensors were deployed with watermark sensors in different depths to control soil moisture, with a fruit diameter sensor to measure the size of the fruit; and temperature and humidity sensors to monitor environmental conditions. Wireless sensor networks are a great solution because of the low installation, maintenance and operating costs. The main project aim in the first season is testing reliability and increasing cost efficiencies.