Improving competitiveness

A higher quality of the agrofruticultural product is highly necessary to improve the competitiveness of the sector. There is consensus that this depends on innovation and technology as sources of productivity growth and competitiveness at all levels. All derived from scientific knowledge, advanced design concepts, artificial intelligence, automation, software, and biological discoveries, among other factors.

The agricultural engineer and researcher of the Institute of Agricultural Research, INIA, Paula Vargas, in conversation with BlueMagazine, refers to the state of agriculture 4.0 and other areas related to the blueberry industry and cultivation, it is also the first confirmed expert for the mega event, “August: International Blueberry Month ”in its 2021 edition.

Quality is achieved in the field

“Given the sociological conditions, we must contribute to generating infrastructure and ecosystems between companies, services, training and research centers and government entities. Although technological advances have undergone major developments, the existing gap in production processes at the field level is increasingly wide and requires greater concern, since it is at this stage where production and final quality is achieved or lost”, Emphasizes the expert and explains that the management with little information and rather intuition, causes that the natural edaphic and climatic variabilities are associated with the low efficiency of the resources (being the human being the most incident), which finally manifest in the differences in quality and performance ”, he assures.

For example, it indicates that the price of Chilean fruits in the markets has a penalty of up to 40% with respect to other more technified producing countries.

Redesign agriculture

In a look at the reality of the developed world, he comments that agriculture faces great challenges due to the decrease in arable land caused by soil degradation, poor agronomic management, and scarce water availability, among other propelled factors. for climate change. “In this scenario, food production is difficult for a growing population, which will exceed 9.700 billion by 2050, and it will be under conditions of limited natural resources. Therefore, it is urgent to redesign agriculture to become more efficient and effective in the use of resources and achieve sustainability ”, he emphasizes.

What is the main contribution of agriculture 4.0?

The profitability of the item, improving agronomic management with greater precision in field decisions. The combination of hardware and software is innovative in the development path of a modern industry, according to the requirements of today's world. It allows optimizing the inputs associated with production.

What is the state in the blueberry industry?

Chile needs to grow in terms of development and insertion of new technologies that maximize the efficiency of the agricultural sectors, specifically the fruit growing area, which makes up more than 60% of agricultural production. The production of blueberries, being a commercial attraction for export, is giving rise to new competitors, which forces producers to intervene quickly and innovatively with the help of ICTs applied to digital agriculture, which allow maintaining leadership as a blueberry exporting country in the southern hemisphere.

Uncertain measurements

Paula Vargas explains that the traditional methods used in Chile to make estimates of yield in blueberries are erratic, reaching a high variability (± 50%), because it is done by means of a periodic count of yield parameters, which, for a The issue of time and availability of resources cannot be a sample “n” that allows considering the existing spatial variability in the orchard, encompassing all the factors that affect the soil-plant-water-climate relationship, resulting in an uncertain quantity of fruit and of unknown quality.

BlueMagazine

The full article can be found in the free specialized magazine BlueMagazine. Login to https://www.revistabluemagazine.com/publicaciones/edicion-2021/ and do not miss the news of the blueberry industry.