Artificial Intelligence and Big Data Analytics in Vineyards: A Review

Advances in remote-sensing, sensor and robotic technology, machine learning, and artificial intelligence (AI) – smart algorithms that learn from patterns in complex data or big data - are rapidly transforming agriculture. This presents huge opportunities for sustainable viticulture, but also many challenges. This chapter provides a state-of-the-art review of the benefits and challenges of AI and big data, highlighting work in this domain being conducted around the world. A way forward, that incorporates the expert knowledge of wine-growers (i.e. human-in-the-loop) to augment the decision-making guidance of big data and automated algorithms, is outlined. Future work needs to explore the coupling of expert systems to AI models and algorithms to increase both the usefulness of AI, its benefits, and its ease of implementation across the vitiviniculture value-chain

Grapes and Wine

Grape and Wine is a collective book composed of 18 chapters that address different issues related to the technological and biotechnological management of vineyards and winemaking. It focuses on recent advances, hot topics and recurrent problems in the wine industry and aims to be helpful for the wine sector. Topics covered include pest control, pesticide management, the use of innovative technologies and biotechnologies such as non-thermal processes, gene editing and use of non-Saccharomyces, the management of instabilities such as protein haze and off-flavors such as light struck or TCAs, the use of big data technologies, and many other key concepts that make this book a powerful reference in grape and wine production. The chapters have been written by experts from universities and research centers of 9 countries, thus representing knowledge, research and know-how of many regions worldwide

A survey of semantic web technology for agriculture.

ABSTRACT. Semantic web technologies have become a popular technique to apply meaning to unstructured data. They have been infrequently applied to problems within the agricultural domain when compared to complementary domains. Despite this lack of application, agriculture has a large number of semantic resources that have been developed by large NGOs such as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). This survey is intended to motivate further research in the application of semantic web technologies for agricultural problems, by making available a self contained reference that provides: a comprehensive review of preexisting semantic resources and their construction methods, data interchange standards, as well as a survey of the current applications of semantic web technologies

Agroecological transitions, between determinist and open-ended visions

Debates around agroecology most often focus on the depth and radicality of the change and relate to different visions of agroecology, which tends to eclipse the ontological relationships of actors (or researchers) to the very ‘change process’ itself. This book is an endeavor to explicate relationships to change in agroecological transitions, referring to two contrasting and ideal-typical ontological relationships to change, the determinist perspective and the open-ended perspective. These conceptions or interpretations of the change process are based respectively on whether objectives and means are predetermined, or defi ned during the change process and while accounting for the uncertainty and complexity of mechanisms of change as well as for the diversity of actors’visions. Many diverse cases of agroecological transitions are discussed in this book, in order to highlight the fact that these perspectives are not always exclusive in transition process but that they can be articulated successively or combined complementarily, in different ways – thus reinforcing the potential diversity of transition pathways

Agroecological transitions, between determinist and open ended transitions.

Debates around agroecology most often focus on the depth and radicality of the change and relate to different visions of agroecology, which tends to eclipse the ontological relationships of actors (or researchers) to the very 'change process' itself. This book is an endeavor to explicate relationships to change in agroecological transitions, referring to two contrasting and ideal-typical ontological relationships to change, the determinist perspective and the open-ended perspective. These conceptions or interpretations of the change process are based respectively on whether objectives and means are predetermined, or defi ned during the change process and while accounting for the uncertainty and complexity of mechanisms of change as well as for the diversity of actors'visions. Many diverse cases of agroecological transitions are discussed in this book, in order to highlight the fact that these perspectives are not always exclusive in transition process but that they can be articulated successively or combined complementarily, in different ways - thus reinforcing the potential diversity of transition pathways

Thinking through the lens of the other: translocal agroecology conversations

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Finding the Limits of the Limes

This open access book demonstrates the application of simulation modelling and network analysis techniques in the field of Roman studies. It summarizes and discusses the results of a 5-year research project carried out by the editors that aimed to apply spatial dynamical modelling to reconstruct and understand the socio-economic development of the Dutch part of the Roman frontier (limes) zone, in particular the agrarian economy and the related development of settlement patterns and transport networks in the area. The project papers are accompanied by invited chapters presenting case studies and reflections from other parts of the Roman Empire focusing on the themes of subsistence economy, demography, transport and mobility, and socio-economic networks in the Roman period. The book shows the added value of state-of-the-art computer modelling techniques and bridges computational and conventional approaches. Topics that will be of particular interest to archaeologists are the question of (forced) surplus production, the demographic and economic effects of the Roman occupation on the local population, and the structuring of transport networks and settlement patterns. For modellers, issues of sensitivity analysis and validation of modelling results are specifically addressed. This book will appeal to students and researchers working in the computational humanities and social sciences, in particular, archaeology and ancient history

Supply chain risks experienced by Stellenbosch wine producers

The South African wine industry is a significant contributor to the South African economy. However the wine producers are facing financial and operational challenges as they operate and compete in a highly traded local and international wine market. These financial and operational challenges manifest as risks in their supply chain and could affect the future sustainability of their business. It against this backdrop that this study aimed to identify the supply chain risks experienced by the Stellenbosch wine producers, and how they manage and overcome these risks. The research was conducted at five wine producers located in each of five Stellenbosch wine producing areas. The producers were selected through a non-probability purposive sample with the assistance of a gatekeeper. The study is descriptive and exploratory with qualitative data collected through semi-structured interviews with ten participants from the five wine producers. The data was analysed using thematic analysis. The study found that the main risk factors centered around: the planning activities concerning the risks involved in matching demand and supply; agricultural activities including the drought and other external hazard risks; the wine making activities including in-process controls; financial risks including margin erosion due to inflationary costs not being matched by selling price increases; and human resource risks. This study recommends that wine producers use a formal risk appraisal process, implement a supplier development process, could make use of precision viticulture methods and improved pest control measures.Business ManagementM. Com. (Business Management