Sensors for smarter decisions

A pilot ‘Smart Farm’ is using novel sensors and multiple streams of data to develop a system to help vegetable growers farm more efficiently, maintain records for certification and better understand their crops. Located in Bundaberg at the property of Australia’s largest chilli producer, Austchilli, the Smart Farm is part of a project looking at digital remote monitoring to improve horticulture’s environmental performance. The project is being delivered by Hort Innovation – with support from the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment as part of the National Landcare Smart Farming Partnerships Program. It is a collaboration between Applied Horticultural Research (AHR), Hitachi, Freshcare, Growcom, Greenlife Industry Australia, the Australian Banana Growers Council, Avocados Australia, AUSVEG and Austchilli. While researchers at AHR are assisting the farm managers with the installation and operation of the sensors, a team of developers at Hitachi are incorporating the data outputs into a unified, easy to understand, digital dashboard. The goal of the project is to create a system where farm management decisions are not made based on one single metric or source of data. As Austchilli owner David De Paoli says, it’s not about any one sensor – but the complete system. “Each unit plays its part in data gathering to give you the whole picture. This then drives the automation,” Mr De Paoli said. Current sensors operating on the Smart Farm include soil moisture, pH and electrical conductivity, a weather station, and in-field high-definition cameras to monitor vital crop growth stages. AUSVEG Project Officer, Ian Thomas, said that a variety of new sensors have recently been added to measure leaching of nutrients and ground run-off. “New, and sometimes novel, sensors have been integrated into the system since the establishment of the farm. A notable new inclusion is a dendrometer, which typically is used to measure miniscule contraction and expansions in the trunks of tree crops, placed onto a growing chilli fruit,” Mr Thomas said. “The data from this sensor will provide a better understanding and record of plant transpiration and growth rates and assist in irrigation and nutrient applications. As the sensor data is collected over multiple crops, the record will provide an invaluable record for understanding yearly differences in crop performance and yield.” The project is also looking into ways of automating recording keeping for certification systems, such as Freshcare Environmental and the Hort 360 Reef Certification. Automating the complicated process of record keeping for environmental certification will likely become an important cost-saving tool as more growers look to do their part in maintaining Australia’s environmental standards. Mr De Paoli is hopeful that the system being developed will begin being used in real-time farm decision making within the year. An audit of the efficiency of the pilot Smart Farm inputs will be conducted once all the monitoring systems have been integrated into the digital dashboard. However, the project still has a long way to go before reaching its goals. “My staff are currently using the data now but there is still human decision-making in the delivery of inputs,” Mr De Paoli said. “It’s now not a guess – it’s real data in real time. With the automation controlling the inputs, I can rest easy knowing that if its Friday afternoon or the weekend, attention to detail will continue and I won’t get fruit drop or blossom end rot.”

Sensitive research: A dendrometer attached to growing chilli to track plant growth cycles (IMAGE: Henry Hyde, Applied Horticultural Research).