The Food Agility Cooperative Research Centre has launched a new project to develop a digital stone fruit orchard to help growers adopt new agricultural practices and adapt to a changing climate.
The “Sustainable Orchards of the Future” project will create a data-driven digital twin model of a stone fruit orchard, with immersive 3D visualization of the physical assets and comprehensive analysis of seasonal data.
The digital twin will be combined with plant physiology and radiation models designed to help farmers prepare for the climate and make sustainable farm management decisions on an ongoing basis.
According to Food Agility, for Australian stone fruit growers, adopting new and innovative agricultural practices can be a resource-intensive process that requires inputs of both time and capital. The development of digital tools could help growers overcome these constraints and improve sustainability outcomes.
The researchers plan to ensure the platform is user-friendly and customizable for different contexts – flexibility will future-proof the technology, foster innovation, and ease the adoption of new agricultural technologies.
Partners on the project include the Victorian Department of Agriculture, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) and the University of Queensland.
