New Zealand’s fruit-growing industry will be heading high-tech if a Central Otago businessman has his way.
Sebastian Chapman, chief executive and co-founder of FruitMinder, is developing a smart app that will map data from individual fruit trees and enable orchardists to provide specialist care for each plant.
“We’re building a bit of software that hopefully should give growers a lot of data so they can make more informed decisions on their orchards,” Chapman said.
The technology creates a “digital twin” of each tree, providing it with a GPS tag.
Chapman said the concept was similar to ear tags on cattle.
“That creates a digital version of the animal and we want to do the same for the trees.”
The GPS tag will hold information about the variety of tree and anything that has happened to that tree over its lifetime, such as growing conditions, treatments, sprays and fertilisers.
It could also eventually measure a tree’s genetics “so that over time growers can really increase the assets that are their trees”.
The company was recently given $44,680 by the Ministry for Primary Industries’ Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures fund to help with FruitMinder’s development.
The smart app idea was that of company co-founder Mike Casey, who owns the Forest Lodge Orchard in Cromwell. He had previously worked in the tech industry in Australia and on his return to New Zealand noticed a lack of software support for the horticulture industry.
“Mike started talking to me about it and I was like, I used to be a dairy farmer and I could not imagine doing my job without the tags we have on cattle.
“I was passionate about the industry so it sort of naturally evolved into where we are at now.”
Chapman said growers face significant labour costs and the technology will help streamline processes and reduce that input. Individual trees in an orchard of thousands can be identified, and tasks for that tree, such as disease treatment, can be assigned to workers.
“It takes all the guesswork out of it. You don’t have to inspect every single tree.”
The technology, which has been under development for about six months, is user friendly and can be operated via cellphone. So far about 10 growers from throughout NZ have got on board.
It is hoped the technology, which is being trialled in Casey’s cherry orchard, will be available by April 2023 and will eventually be used on “anything that grows in a straight line and has even spacing”.
The aim is to have the technology used widely across NZ, and to eventually also break into the international market. There is data collection technology available overseas, but it is not as “multifaceted” as FruitMinder.
“There are a lot of things that are single faceted in their data collection, such as satellite imagery.
“But you need to store that information against that tree somewhere so you can cross-reference it. What were the growing conditions, weather patterns, fertiliser you put on, when did we prune? All the actions that actually lead up to getting a better yield at the end of the growing season.”
Chapman said while the project was still in its infancy he is keen to get as much feedback from the industry as possible.
“The aim is to get a better fruit yield consistently for growers, so we can increase the value of the tree.”
