Services to Improve Water Use Efficiency of Vineyards and Deciduous Fruit orchards in South Africa

Many farmers use soil moisture systems which show hourly changes in soil moisture, and the exact moment to irrigate. The FruitLook data helps a farmer to identify the most representative location in his block for such a system, and how to extrapolate the soil moisture information in this particular point. A number of companies in South Africa offer airborne vegetation index mapping to identify sampling areas prior to harvest. Aerial photography has a higher spatial resolution than the FruitLook data, but the high costs do not allow weekly acquisitions. The combination with FruitLook allows a farmer to have weekly updates on the spatial changes on his farm, while maintaining a detailed understanding of the spatial variations visible in the aerial photography. The FruitLook service package provides crop information on a weekly basis disseminated through the data portal www.FruitLook.co.za. It allows users to register so they only need to download information on the blocks they are interested in. Weekly updates on 8 parameters provide a comprehensive understanding of the spatial and temporal changes in a block. To create the parameter data, the system requires no inputs of the farmer.