DIMAP: a digital ecosystem for integrated disease management in pear orchards

BACKGROUND

Pears are among the most consumed fruits worldwide and Rocha pears are among Portugal's most exported agricultural products. However, more than 50% of production can be lost every year due to three main pathogens: Stemphylium vesicarium, Rosellinia necatrix(both fungi) and Erwinia amylovora (bacteria). Controlling these pathogens often involves preventative applications of fungicides. As such, tools that allow producers to predict the risk of infection earlier and more accurately can help them avoid losing crops, while reducing the application of treatments, with economic and environmental benefits.

The project “DIMAP: A digital ecosystem for integrated disease management in pear orchards” was born in 2021 with the aim of building a consortium and network to develop these solutions.

SYNOPSIS

As with most agricultural products, pests and diseases generate high economic losses for pear producers, through loss of production and the costs associated with disease management (Table 1). O Stemphylium vesicarium, a Rosellinia necatrix and Erwinia amylovora are the etiological agents of stenphylliosis, root rot and fire blight (respectively). These diseases can lead to loss of fruit production and tree morbidity or mortality. Although some of the factors that promote these diseases are common, there is also substantial variability between pathogens in terms of the symptoms caused and the factors that contribute to infection (e.g. weather conditions or the availability of disease vectors, among others).

Table 1

As such, an early detection system (prior to visible symptoms) for each of the three diseases must be able to integrate data from multiple sources. DIMAP was created with the development of such a system in mind and was funded through the project SmartAgriHubs, funded by the European program Horizon 2020, through the call for tenders PREPARE, which supported projects in the early stages of development to set up a consortium and prepare a project plan.

In addition to InnovPlantProtect (InPP), DIMAP has the following partners:

Producers and Producers' Associations:

• APAS: Sobrena Agricultural Producers Association
• ANP: National Association of Rocha Pear Producers
• FNOP: National Federation of Fruit and Vegetable Producers' Organizations
• The Blackbird

Competence Centers and Private R&D Institutions:

• COTHN: National Horticultural Operational and Technological Center
• SFCoLab: Smart Farm CoLAB
• “Rocha” Center: Center for Postharvest and Technology

Academic Institutions:

• ISA: Instituto Superior de Agronomia
• ESAE: Elvas School of Agriculture

Small and medium-sized enterprises:

• Biome Makers (Spain/USA)
• TerraPro

OBJECTIVES

The main aims of the project are:

1. identify synergies between partners;
2. identify the most promising technological approaches for the early detection of diseases;
3. define the most suitable machine learning/artificial intelligence algorithms to integrate the different data sources and design the structure of these algorithms;
4. identify orchards to be sampled in order to train, test and validate the disease prediction models.

ACTIVITIES

In order to achieve the project's objectives, DIMAP is structured around the following phases:

1. Review of the state of the art and creation of technology transfer reports, with information on:
   1.1 Each of the pathogens, following a structure similar to the pest survey cards in the EFSA (Reports available for: bacterial fire, stenphylosis e root rot);
   1.2 The technologies available for early detection and risk mapping.
   
   
2. Realization of a workshop with all the partners, to discuss information on the diseases and the technologies that can be used to detect them, using the previously indicated reports as a basis (held in Elvas on December 2 and 3, 2021).
   
   
3. Testing technologies on a small scale. The results of workshop will be used to identify technologies for small-scale testing, in order to identify the most promising for inclusion in a large-scale proposal.
   
   
4. Preparing a project. The ultimate aim of PREPARE is to produce a draft project proposal that can be submitted for funding.
   

ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED

FINANCING