A systematic literature review

Barriguinha, A., Neto, M. D. C., & Gil, A. (2021). Vineyard yield estimation, prediction, and forecasting: A systematic literature review. Agronomy, 11(9), 1-27. [1789]. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11091789Purpose—knowing in advance vineyard yield is a critical success factor so growers and winemakers can achieve the best balance between vegetative and reproductive growth. It is also essential for planning and regulatory purposes at the regional level. Estimation errors are mainly due to the high inter-annual and spatial variability and inadequate or poor performance sampling methods; therefore, improved applied methodologies are needed at different spatial scales. This paper aims to identify the alternatives to traditional estimation methods. Design/methodology/approach—this study consists of a systematic literature review of academic articles indexed on four databases collected based on multiple query strings conducted on title, abstract, and keywords. The articles were reviewed based on the research topic, methodology, data requirements, practical application, and scale using PRISMA as a guideline. Findings—the methodological approaches for yield estimation based on indirect methods are primarily applicable at a small scale and can provide better estimates than the traditional manual sampling. Nevertheless, most of these approaches are still in the research domain and lack practical applicability in real vineyards by the actual farmers. They mainly depend on computer vision and image processing algorithms, data-driven models based on vegetation indices and pollen data, and on relating climate, soil, vegetation, and crop management variables that can support dynamic crop simulation models. Research limitations—this work is based on academic articles published before June 2021. Therefore, scientific outputs published after this date are not included. Originality/value—this study contributes to perceiving the approaches for estimating vineyard yield and identifying research gaps for future developments, and supporting a future research agenda on this topic. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is the first systematic literature review fully dedicated to vineyard yield estimation, prediction, and forecasting methods.publishersversionpublishe

GeoAI approach to Vineyard Yield Estimation

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor in Information Management, specialization in Geographic Information SystemsKnowing in advance vineyard yield is a key issue for growers, winemakers, policy makers, and regulators being fundamental to achieve the best balance between vegetative and reproductive growth, and to allow more informed decisions like thinning, irrigation and nutrient management, schedule harvest, optimize winemaking operations, program crop insurance, fraud detection and grape picking workforce demand. In a long-term scenario of perceived climate change, it is also essential for planning and regulatory purposes at the regional level. Estimating yield is complex and requires knowing driving factors related to climate, plant, and crop management that directly influence the number of clusters per vine, berries per cluster, and berry weight. These three yield components explain 60%, 30%, and 10% of the yield. The traditional methods are destructive, labor-demanding, and time-consuming, with low accuracy primarily due to operator errors and sparse sampling (compared to the inherent spatial variability in a production vineyard). Those are supported by manual sampling, where yield is estimated by sampling clusters weight and the number of clusters per vine, historical data, and extrapolation considering the number of vines in a plot. As the extensive research in the area clearly shows, improved applied methodologies are needed at different spatial scales. The methodological approaches for yield estimation based on indirect methods are primarily applicable at small scale and can provide better estimates than the traditional manual sampling. They mainly depend on computer vision and image processing algorithms, data-driven models based on vegetation indices and pollen data, and on relating climate, soil, vegetation, and crop management variables that can support dynamic crop simulation models. Despite surpassing the limitations assigned to traditional manual sampling methods with the same or better results on accuracy, they still lack a fundamental key aspect: the real application in commercial vineyards. Another gap is the lack of solutions for estimating yield at broader scales (e.g., regional level). The perception is that decisions are more likely to take place on a smaller scale, which in some cases is inaccurate. It might be the case in regulated areas and areas where support for small viticulturists is needed and made by institutions with proper resources and a large area of influence. This is corroborated by the fact that data-driven models based on Trellis Tension and Pollen traps are being used for yield estimation at regional scales in real environments in different regions of the world. The current dissertation consists of the first study to identify through a systematic literature review the research approaches for predicting yield in vineyards for wine production that can serve as an alternative to traditional estimation methods, to characterize the different new approaches identifying and comparing their applicability under field conditions, scalability concerning the objective, accuracy, advantages, and shortcomings. In the second study following the identified research gap, a yield estimation model based on Geospatial Artificial Intelligence (GeoAI) with remote sensing and climate data and a machine-learning approach was developed. Using a satellite-based time-series of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) calculated from Sentinel 2 images and climate data acquired by local automatic weather stations, a system for yield prediction based on a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) neural network was implemented. The results show that this approach makes it possible to estimate wine grape yield accurately in advance at different scales

Imagerie radar en ondes millimétriques appliquée à la viticulture

Avec l’expansion des exploitations agricoles, le principe d’homogénéité du rendement (céréales, fruits…) devient de moins en moins pertinent. Ce phénomène de variabilité spatiale implique des conséquences économiques et environnementales avec le développement de nouveaux concepts agricoles comme les « site-specific management » (gestion spécifique des parcelles). Les traitements tels que les fertilisants, les intrants et autres pesticides doivent être utilisés de manière différente en les appliquant au bon endroit, à la bonne période et au bon taux. Cette nouvelle façon de penser l’agriculture fait partie de l’agriculture de précision (PA) et se concentre en quatre domaines technologiques : (i) la télédétection, (ii) la navigation et guidage, (iii) la gestion des données et (iv) les technologies à taux variable. Initiée à la fin des années 1990, la viticulture de précision (PV) est une branche particulière de la PA, caractérisée par des problématiques spécifiques à la viticulture. Les travaux effectués durant cette thèse entrent dans le cadre de la télédétection (ou détection proche) appliquée à la PV. Ils se focalisent sur une nouvelle méthode d’estimation de la quantité de grappes (masse ou volume) directement sur les plants de vignes. Pouvoir estimer le rendement des vignes plusieurs semaines avant la récolte offre de nombreux avantages avec des impacts économiques et qualitatifs, avec par exemple : (i) l’amélioration du rapport rendement/qualité en supprimant au plut tôt une partie de la récolte, (ii) l’optimisation des ressources humaines et la logistique à la récolte, (iii) un remboursement le plus équitable par les assurances en cas d’intempéries qui endommageraient les pieds de vignes. La méthode proposée ici repose sur l’imagerie microondes (à 24GHz ou des fréquences plus élevées) générée par un radar FM-CW. Elle implique la mise en place d’un système d’interrogation intra-parcellaire « pied par pied » à distance basé au sol, et en particulier : (i) l’évaluation de la précision des mesures et les limites du système, (ii) le développement d’algorithmes spécifiques pour l’analyse de données tridimensionnelles, (iii) la construction d’estimateurs pour retrouver le volume des grappes, et finalement (iv) l’analyse des données recueillies pendant les campagnes de mesures. Dû au caractère saisonnier des récoltes, les mesures sont en premier lieu effectuées sur des cibles canoniques, des charges variables et des capteurs passifs en laboratoire. Pour mettre en avant la flexibilité de cette interrogation radar, le même système est utilisé en parallèlement dans le cadre du projet régional PRESTIGE, pour compter à distance le nombre de pommes présentes sur les pommiers en verger. Ces travaux ont été financés par l’entreprise Ovalie-Innovation et l’ANRT (Agence Nationale de la Recherche Technologique)