Smart Agro Grape – Digital platform for vineyard managers
UL FE
Date of publication:
How can you set up smart vineyards that would be sustainably oriented and that would only use the essential quantities of sprays and fertilisers? This challenge has been taken up by the European project Smart Agro Grape, in which the lead partner is the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the University of Ljubljana. The project will involve the development of a digital platform and a mobile phone app, which will allow vineyard managers to access / get notifications and thereby to respond early to situations that could lead to the onset of various diseases in the vineyard, and will enable more commercially successful operation.
The aims of the project are to develop solutions, technologies and practices that will enable reduced use of plant protection agents and more environmentally friendly cultivation of the soil, thereby ensuring favourable soil structure and greater fertility, and preventing erosion and soil degradation. In this way the systems developed will contribute to preserving biodiversity.
The project will see the development of what are called smart vineyards. Using the cloud-based digital platform and the phone app, winegrowers will get notifications on the specific climate conditions of microlocations and will enable them to manage agricultural land in technologically, economically and environmentally more efficient ways.
In addition to the University of Ljubljana, the project involves the cooperation of five winegrowers in the Primorska region (Matej Kralj, Jan Bordon, Domen Jogan, Rok Ražman, Andrej Krmac), two in the Štajerska region (Katja Leber Vračko, Kobal Wine Estate, wine and spirits company d.o.o.), Percipio d.o.o., 2 KM d.o.o. and KZ Agraria Koper. It is being funded by the Rural Development Programme and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development.
More information at: https://smartagrogrape.si or jurij.verhovnik@fe.uni-lj.si
