The digitization of the fruit sector has accelerated in recent years, and with it the need for modern yield monitoring tools in fruit growing. For this purpose, Pixofarm GmbH, founded in 2019 and based in Vienna, has developed a sophisticated smart farming app that can be used to count the fruits on approximately 100 trees within 30 minutes. The tool is used along the entire season, from flowering to the growth phase and harvest to post-harvest and storage. Over 500 hectares worldwide, mostly apple orchards, are already monitored using Pixofarm. They are now working on similar systems for pears and stone fruit, Albrecht Auersperg described in a webinar held on April 27.
Accuracy of about 95 percent
The system is divided into several modules. First, he said, Pixofarm makes it very easy to record the hangings in a given plant. "You simply go to a representative tree in the rows and photograph it with your smartphone. Pixofarm then counts the visible fruit in the square and estimates the non-visible fruit on the other sides of the tree. The same is done for other trees so that the sample can be increased quickly and easily. These images are used to calculate the average hanging per tree and the total number of fruits with an accuracy of about 95 percent," Auersperg says.
Further data on fruit sizes and growth progress are then collected. In this module, the average caliber as well as the size class distribution and, optionally, the fruit growth rate are calculated. Auersperg: "If you follow the protocol exactly, which means that you have counted a certain number of trees and measured fruit, Pixofarm can provide a yield estimate based on this. In order to be able to modulate the analysis more precisely, we usually recommend four measurement runs, each with a week's interval. In the overall result, not only the harvest volume is estimated, but also the average sizes. External factors, such as location, weather influences, etc., are also taken into account and calculated through."
The last and newest module of the system is the harvest box scanner. In this module, full harvest boxes are photographed and the dimensions of a bin are manually entered as a reference. "Based on this, Pixofarm calculates the size of all visible fruit. With this data, the farmer or the respective fruit warehouse can gather initial size information before the goods are stored and perform a kind of pre-sorting. With this data, storage and distribution - whether at the medium-sized fruit farm or in the cooperative - can be further optimized," explains Auersperg.
Business Development Manager Albrecht Auersperg advises and accompanies fruit growers on the path to digitalization
Information and competitive advantage
Practical examples show that Pixofarm has many advantages from the point of view of both the grower and the marketer. In cultivation, many more measurements can be made in a relatively short time, which ultimately leads to time savings. Furthermore, with relatively little effort, accurate hanging counts can be recorded both before and after hand thinning. "By monitoring fruit development and growth rates, operations and season planning can be improved, and so can fruit quality and yields," Auersperg says.
"We strongly believe that Pixofarm is the more accurate alternative compared to traditional methods. Using this data, the farmer or cooperative can, for example, address certain markets early on, when it is already known that the fruit will tend to be small this year. Accordingly, accurate yield estimation ultimately leads to the essential information and competitive advantage," he concludes.
Further information:
Albrecht Auersperg
Pixofarm GmbH
Markhofgasse 19, Vienna
Tel. +43 660 2114265
albrecht@pixofarm.com
www.pixofarm.com