Technology the key for competitive horticulture

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It's a competitive world out there for fruit growers and horticulturalists. Not only is there a need to maximise production and lift the returns per hectare - to work smarter, not harder - but it's also vital to meet the increasingly stringent requirements of the marketplace.

Next year will see the EUREPGAP standards firmly in place. These standards for produce suppliers exporting to Europe were initiated by a group of European retailers and driven by concerns about food safety, especially in the wake of the BSE and foot-and-mouth crises. EUREPGAP will be of critical importance to New Zealand growers wanting to access the European market.

"Europe is a major market for New Zealand horticultural products," says Mike Donald, an organic pip-fruit grower and also CEO of Terralink International Limited. "Achieving compliance with EUREPGAP standards is essential for exporting growers."

EUREPGAP focuses on issues of traceability and responsibility. A kiwifruit on sale in Germany should be traceable, back along the route it was shipped, to its packers, its pickers, and to the vine it grew on - and further, the history of that vine should be traceable as well: the chemicals it was sprayed with, the fertilisers which fed it, the soil it grew in and the use of irrigation.

To achieve certification under EUREPGAP, growers will have to record a wide range of practices - everything from fertiliser use and irrigation to soil management and harvesting.

"Growers will need to document everything that might affect their product," says Mike Donald.

And technology, he says, is the key to doing this successfully.

"At Terralink International we are working alongside Computer Concepts - a leading supplier of software to the agricultural sector - to provide services which make it easy for horticulturalists and farmers to record and retrieve information. Their Endeavour2 software combines farm and orchard mapping with a powerful database - or Resolution is primarily for agricultural mapping.

"Terralink International can provide growers with an orthophoto of their property - that's a digitally rectified aerial photo, with dimensions as accurate as a map - and add other layers of data as needed. These might include information on soil types, land contours, and legal boundaries. We can overlay the positions of fences, buildings, drains, shelter belts and other physical features - and we can provide the photo digitally, or in a hard copy format."

Then, says Mike, the grower can add information into the database over time, so they have an ongoing record of their management practices.

"The uses are really wide-ranging. Of course, documentation is vital for growers exporting under the new EUREPGAP regime - or for organic growers whose products have to meet very stringent standards. But there are also so many other reasons to have this kind of system.

"For instance, contour information can allow a grower to determine the likelihood of flooding and plan drainage services. Information on rainfall, or on sunlight hours, or frost patterns, can help a grower assess where to establish new plantings. And then they can record plant growth and crop yields over time. The software will also help calculate quantities of fertiliser or spray needed for a particular area."

Computer Concepts Endeavour2 and Resolution software, combined with imagery and data from Terralink International, is an excellent all-round management tool for horticulturalists, says Mike. "For growers who want to compete in a competitive market, technology is definitely the way ahead."

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