Precision agriculture comes to cider: technology enables detailed monitoring of apple orchards

Precision agriculture comes to cider: Cultiva Decisiones technology enables detailed monitoring of apple orchards.

The digital transformation continues its incursion into different professional environments and sectors. Now it is agriculture that has witnessed how new technologies changed its traditional manner of working. The most recent field affected by this revolution is cider, a sector that in Spain alone generates more than 50 million Euro each year.

The process is being carried out with support from Seresco, a company specialized in digital transformation, and its tool Cultiva Decisiones, a comprehensive precision agriculture platform that enables continuous observation and management of agricultural holdings in a simple and visual manner, thus offering decision-making support to farmers.

Since the current season began three months ago, Seresco has started to implement this tool’s services in 63 hectares of apple orchards in Asturias so that farmers can carry out more detailed monitoring of the crop status and determine and track more exactly where action is required.

Moreover, Cultiva Decisiones conducts a study of crop evolution during the season, as well as a comparison with previous years, which enables identification of the most recommended practices to improve yield and quality. This translates in turn into cost savings and more sustainable and efficient production, since it optimizes the number of treatments to apply (fertilizers, plant protection products…) both in number and extension.

To this end, Cultiva Decisiones integrates different technologies into a unique solution for monitoring parameters such as the temperature of the orchards, as well as their relative humidity, the wind speed, the amount of precipitation, radiation and leaf moisture. In addition, in some cases irrigation meters or soil humidity probes are included.

 “The advent of Cultiva Decisiones in the cider sector is one more step toward the digital transformation of agriculture,” notes Rubén Pérez, the Director of Seresco’s Consulting and Software Area.

 “It is a key step that enables us to continue to collaborate with farmers and professionals in the sector to achieve maximum efficiency in production using the most innovative technology.”

The modernization of the countryside: from traditional farming to precision agriculture.

The Cultiva Decisiones tool, developed by Seresco, is an interoperable, cloud-based platform that automatically compiles and processes all sorts of information (public and private) that is of interest for the agricultural holding and that may improve its quality and increase its production: data from sensors, satellites, monitoring systems and weather forecasts or drone flights, among others. Afterward, it stores this information using geo-positioning, thus enabling visual analysis and comparisons by time periods, areas, seasons and other criteria.