Advanced application of ICT to the sustainable production of excellent Japanese Mandarin

Abstract

Satsuma Mandarin cultivated in Nanki, Mie, Japan is one of the most excellent rareripes. However, lack of agricultural continuators makes the translation of special agricultural skills much harder. Under these circumstances, advanced application of ICT to Mandarin production using the scientific evidences based on the sensing data is eagerly desired. In this sense, collaboration between ICT system developers and Mandarin growers should be necessary with sharing common understanding for the sustainable production of excellent Japanese Mandarin based on the index for optimal irrigation control with sensing data. In this paper, therefore, we tried to apply cutting-edge ICT to sustainable production of excellent Satsuma Mandarin: namely, the establishment of cultivation diagnosis for the Mandarin production by the hardness of fruit, water stress measured by Time Domain Reflectometry method, evapotranspiration, and soil moisture stress (PF value); and the development of the cultivation aid software, which is Guideware, with simple and easy human interfaces using a database linking between remotely sensed data and expertise. We also conducted to extract cheap, easy, rapid, nondestructive and nonchemical method for sensing tree vigor, fruit conditions, and meteorological conditions in Mandarin production.