Partnership expected to strengthen Florida citrus industry

Energy Florida, Inc. and Integrated GIS, Inc. have entered into a partnership that will leverage each organization’s technical talents benefiting Florida agriculture. The partnership is focused on deploying a citrus production management strategy that has been developed by Integrated GIS, Inc. over the past several years. This strategy utilizes geo-referenced electronic data collected by ground based sensors that, once interpreted, provides the grower with quantifiable information that allows production dollars to be invested in areas of the grove that will return a profit. “When we learned of what Integrated GIS, Inc. has developed for the citrus industry we saw a perfect fit with our technology offerings to the Florida citrus industry,” said Michael Aller, Executive Director, Energy Florida, Inc.

Energy Florida, Inc. has created the Florida Bio-Agriculture Initiative an industry-led effort to strengthen the state’s citrus industry by assessing opportunities for new revenue producing options in bio-based products for Florida’s citrus growers and processors. “One of the areas we have been focusing on is the utilization of biomass from citrus trees that have been removed from the grove due to lack of production. Currently the removed trees are usually pushed and burned in the field, and we believe this source of biomass could be a revenue source for the grower,” said Aller.

The production management strategy that Integrated GIS, Inc. has developed provides the grower with detailed information on the productive capability of a citrus grove. “The strategy that our technical team has developed provides the grower with a Biomatrix Index that factor in the height, density and relative health of the citrus foliage,” said Scott Peterich, President and Chief Strategic Officer, Integrated GIS, Inc. “Utilizing financial statistics from the University of Florida, IFAS, CREC, Lake Alfred, FL and the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service the financial contribution of individual trees can be calculated to determine if the tree is covering the variable costs and contributing to total costs of the block”. This quantifiable information allows the grower to make informed, data-driven decisions on which trees to remove and also provides a look into the future productive capability of the grove by comparing the Biomatrix Index for each collection generating a “foliage change analysis”.

For more information:
Michael Aller
Energy Florida
Tel: +1 (321) 613-2973
Email: Michael.Aller@energyflorida.org
www.EnergyFlorida.org
or
Scott Peterich
Integrated GIS
Tel: +1 (561) 313-4334
Email: speterich@integratedgis.com