Over the past few months, agricultural sensing company Hort-Eye has been testing their sensing algorithms in the citrus field of Nutrano in a collaborative effort to research the advantages of using drone technology with cutting-edge sensors to detect water stress and vigour and to estimate yield in citrus crops.

The company Hort-Eye was founded with an aim to translate the collaborative research undertaken at the University of Melbourne into practical tools assisting various management decisions in Horticulture and other Agricultural sectors. Since its launch in July 2017, the company has developed successful models for estimating water stress to assist irrigation allocation for every tree, crop vigour and even for remote asset inspection. This was done with the support of forward thinking companies such as Nutrano.

Water stress is a major consideration in citrus growth and fruit quality,mapping tree-by-tree water stress before the symptoms are evident is proven to prevent yield and fruit quality loss by adapting irrigation. This knowledge will allow managing irrigation to get the most desirable outcomes in fruit sweetness, acidity and size.

Through the research being conducted at Nutrano, it can be acknowledged that with the forever evolving drone and sensing technologies that Hort-Eye provide, the potential to improve overall crop water use efficiency and enable precise control of water stress for crafting quality is evident.