New developments in electronic engineering on fruticulture.

Introduction: Agriculture has benefited from technological advances, the Industrial Revolution 

made ​​it through mechanization and the development of agrochemicals, especially fertilizers and pesticides. Today in the Information Age, there are new technologies like genetic engineering and automation, which provide powerful tools for the management of orchards (Zhang et al.; 2006). Technology contributes to overall improvements in crop production, quality, environmental protection and welfare of animals and people (Cox; 2002). Zhang et al. (2006) suggest that innovations in agriculture have been developed mainly in sensors, controllers, remote sensing and information management. Most electronic engineering from adapted or applied to agricultural needs. This paper presents an overview of the main areas of research and applications of Electrical Engineering at orchards, pointing tools, their uses, the main centers of innovation and interest is to accommodate these technologies and their theoretical bases. 

Targets and theoretical bases: Applications of Electronic Engineering in agriculture were born in the developed countries to obtain and manage information with ideas to reduce production costs, increase performance output/input, to prescind from manpower (automation), reduce pollution, meet environmental legislation, to facilitate handling of large and variables areas, increase the efficiency and management of information, meet the new consumer awareness, reduce risks and improve non-destructive research methods, more rapid and continuous (Mahan et al., 2010; Sinfield et al., 2010, Zhang et al., 2006). Cox (2002) notes that the first source of information is the collection of data through the measuring sensors of solids, liquids or gases of interest. Sinfield et al. (2010) point out that this is obtained through chemical, electrical and optical sensors and Rocha et al. (2010) indicate that patterns should be based on color, texture, borders and looks for the classification and observation of differences. While developing interesting technologies Zhang et al. (2006) point out that they must innovate in sensors, controllers, remote sensing and information management, and that these should be standardized (ISO 11783 and ISO 11787) for correct exchange of data. 

Main areas and applications: According to Cox (2002) began the new era from the 60's with the advent of satellites and shuttles to perceive the earth's surface features and in the 70's appears Landsat measuring biomass, soil moisture, based on the reflected radiation. This, according to Zhang et al. (2006), chock Precision Agriculture (PA) that seeks to reorganize the whole system to reduce inputs, increase efficiency and achieve sustainability. To achieve this, should emerging and converging technologies of GPS, GIS (NDVI), miniaturized components of computers, automatic controllers, field and remote collection devices, mobile computing, advanced data processing and telecommunications. According Chaerle et al. (2009) What has been developed to work remotely, is the Imagery with fluorescence, thermometry and growth. Cox (2002) notes the development of technologies for mapping multi-layer representation, the use of LIDAR for three-dimensional details of the surface (fluorescence, plant health and pollution), GPR (ground penetrating radar) for water supply, Infra-red radiometer for plant water status, the GPS to work remotely with 2cm of error. Sinfield et al. (2010) point to the use of VRT technologies, the NIR and MIR for pH, EC, N, P, K. to avoid complex laboratory analysis. 

Fig 1 .- Using technologies from electronic engineering, from top to bottom: Model of automated machinery (Cox, 2002),Determination of fruit quality by crossing variables (Rocha et al., 2010), Characterization of CE Scan using electro-magneticinduction (Godwin and Miller, 2002), Determining the degree ofstress from defoliation of a crop (Du et al., 2008).

Zhang et al. (2006) identifies six groups of variability used in electrical engineering in agriculture: Yield (historical and current distribution), of land (topography, elevation), Soil (fertility, physical, WRC, chemical and depth), of culture (density, height, mineral and/or water stress), and biophysical properties: LAI, PAR interception, biomass, chlorophyll content, fruit quality), Anomalous (weeds, insects, nematodes, diseases and wind damage) and management (tillage, hybrid, pattern of irrigation and VRT). Also indicates that there may be 2 ways of approach: through maps (grid sampling), and through real-time sensors (these are more expensive and less applied). 

Research Centres: Rocha et al. (2010) states as centers of innovation at the New Holland Company, NASA, Carnegie Mellar University, while Zhang et al. (2006) notes the following countries as pioneers: USA, Canada, Australia, and Eastern Europe countries. Notes currently conducts research in China, Korea, Indonesia, SriLanka, Turkey, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Russia, Uruguay, Italy, Netherlands, Germany, France, United Kingdom and Costa Rica. 

Trends and Issues: According to Rocha et al. (2010) is moving toward the combination of parameters for catalogs to classify species and varieties through images (Supermarket produce). According to Cox (2002) seeks to achieve work remotely with the development of robotics in the field. According to Sinfield et al. (2010) is working to implement large-scale VRT. According Gontia et al. (2008) are developing indices for irrigation scheduling. Zhang et al. (2006) notes that the trend is to work on finer scales (temporal and spatial), in telecommunication network and integrated approaches (universities, specialists, farmers and economists). Mahan et al. (2010) speak of automation through continuous measurements. And Chaerle et al. (2009) suggest that monitors be developed with multi-sensors for more comprehensive situations. Zhang et al. (2006) notes that the main problems are the costs of adoption, imperception of benefits, the conservatism of farmers and technology transfer, further notes that must make a concerted effort among all actors in the chain and technology generation innovation. 

Conclusion: The application of technologies from electronic engineering has provided important tools for fruticulture managing. The use of physiological, technological and economic bases have opened a new form of administration based on accuracy in order to reduce costs and make better use of resources and information. The future is loaded with a series of components designed for precision agriculture, with measurements and monitored handling computationally, with all the benefits that entails. And mass use of such tools will only be possible as there are trained professionals, technology transfer and economically attractive cost for the industry in general. 

Excerpt from the review:

1.- Chaerle, L., Lenk, S., Leinonen, I., Jones, H., Van Der Deustraeten, D., Buschnann, C. 2009. Multi-sensor plant imaging: toward the development of a stress catalogue. Biotechnology Journal. 4: 1152-1167.

2.- Cox, S. 2002. Information technology: the global key to precision agriculture and sustainability. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture. 36: 93-111.

3.- Rocha, A., Hauagge, D., Wainer, J., Goldenstein, S. 2010. Automatic fruit and vegetableclassification from images. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture. 70: 96-104.

4.- Mahan, J., Conaty, W., Nielsen, J., Payton, P., Cox, S. 2010. Field performance in agricultural settings of a wireless temperature monitoring system based on a low-cost infrared sensor. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture. 71: 176-181.

5.- Sinfield, J., Fagerman, D., Colic, O. 2010. Evaluation of sensing technologies for on-the-go detection of macro-nutrients in cultivated soils. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture. 70: 1-18.

6.- Zhang, N., Wang, M., Wang, N. 2006. Precision agriculture- a worldwide overview. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture. 36: 113-132.

The concern of problem.

  For most people, the Envoronment is an important issue, many of them talk about climate change, species extinction, polution and so on...is that it's a concern for the vast majority see how it degrades the planet. However, and from my point of view, is difficult to act and make significant changes when trying to tackle the problem on a scale of work that's beyond our capacity for action. In one of the few motivators that one really works can be found in life, I found one that changed my way of seeing the problem. It dosen't mean that major problems are no longer interesting to me, but I understand that beyond my ability to fix it. To get to the point, I'll try a problem for me is vital and for that I put in a context. I live in a city linked to rural, where the economy is based mainly on natural resources, specially mining, agriculture and tourism. So, I've always had that love naturally developed into the environment. Clarified this, the problem is as follows: the city where I live, for their economic activities, its territory is exposed to constant pressures that lead to a sustained loss of quality of natural ecosystems. But what can we understand that this is a problem, whether exercised by man changes seem to be always associated with an ever greater benefit?...There arises the problem (according to my perception), because of course, we are used to update the look and perceived benefits...which makes sense economically...but if we open a bit the range of vision probably find ourselves with something a little less enjoyable. Here, let me carry on my more rational environmental and flirt with the job that made me change the way you see the problem.

The deterioration of the ecosystem we can range from many perspectives, of which I chose, desertification and the capacity of ecosystems to recover from human pressures, I should clarify that work was superficial and that I should delve into it,but hard data are conclusive.

Desertification we will understand in practical terms as a loss of vegetation and the relationship that allows the generation, such as faunación (and trophic relationships) and biogeochemical cycles (water, carbon, nitrogen, etc.), but it must also be understood as a process of soil loss, the surface layer of the earth's crust that allows the possibility differentially support life, allows agriculture, human settlements and thus enable many other activities.

Then, and preliminary data, I sat down at my laptop to make calculations of bioclimatic indices (then I'll explain what they are useful), to characterize the vegetation and wildlife, always thinking of the relationship may be greater than the problems of desertification, which are assumed increasing and moving towards the area where I live.

If you ask me, never been easy for me to describe my area from a ecological point of view, although aware of the climate and it's characteristics (here's a big problem), I can now define a level of certainty the climate, vegetation and faunación (Here is a breakthrough), and I have had clear global problems and their causes, but I have no capacity to perform at that level, then the only way out was to work at the local level the problem of desertification. For this I took the climatic data of Los Andes city (whose source I have little confidence), and then I set out to make bioclimatic diagrams. 
These famous diagrams are used to relate the climate of a place and its capacity to produce plant biomass, in the proposed hypothesis for this analysis we will consider its use and analysis for the zone under conditions such that the vegetation has been lost. (not to mention various causes that can be fires, abandonment after extraction or agricultural activities, pollution, etc). This assumption of total or partial loss is adjusted to the problem of desertification mentioned before, and also to problems of erosion, the latter mainly because the area dominated by soils with a sloping, devoid of vegetation would also be exposed to water erosion effects mainly the effect of rainfall concentrated in the winter months. 

Having made this assumption had to relate it to the diagram, which to my surprise was not very encouraging as the values ​​generated were low.

To do it more graphic, put an image and it will base the discussion.

Los Andes's Bioclimatic diagram preliminary
(x-axis = months of the year with 1 = July,  y-axis = bioclimatic unit.)
  Serie 1: potential bioclimatic intensity.
Serie 2: Dry bioclimatic intensity (value <0)
               Free bioclimatic intensity (value> 0)

Now, the chart can make the discussion relevant to this, I must first explain the meaning of each curve, to use a common language.

Potential bioclimatic intensity (PBI) represents the productive potential of the ecosystem examined, although water restrictions, estimated capacity growth of vegetation (biomass) in a year as productivity potential.

Dry bioclimatic intensity (DBI), measures the stoppage or arrest of the vegetative activity (plant growth) due to water deficit or drought.

Free bioclimatic intensity (FBI), represents the climatic productivity has recovered after the effect of water stress (it becomes what it really grows native forest with the weather).

There are other currents that are not appreciated for this climate and have to do with the cold bioclimatic intensity (CBI) where productivity is paralyzed by the cold winter (on overage under 7.5 ° C), this is logical, because if this condition is present for the forest under analysis (sclerophyllous and Acacia caven's scrub), presented no growth during the year, which means that this type of vegetation does not exist in the place. 

While the data shown are partial, clearly show that once you lose the vegetation is very unlikely that this will recover naturally, and if so, take a long time, probably decades or more, mainly the effect of prolonged seasonal drought, which for climatic terms is defined as 6 or 7 months, but for bioclimatic terms is 9 months (This includes factors of vegetation, and low effective rainfall to activate the plant growth). Now to understand the data, must be compared to values ​​that give us signals of what really happens, because the data do not speak for themselves. 

PBI should move values ​​between 4 and 7 as possible from the environment to generate real forests and are easily recoverable after activities that degrade the vegetation, in this case, the PBI reached higher values ​​near 2.8, which is very low to expect true forest vegetation formations (which is a reality for the area). 

For PBI values ​​between 2.2 and 4 increases the resistance of the environment to the recovery of degraded forest, this is greater when the UBP values ​​tend to zero (it´s became smaller). This situation occurs in the area for the period between mid-October and March, which may shed light on actions to pursue recovery of the forest, however, this period is highly influenced by the effect of DBI (drying effect), which represents a large investment in water for an area where water is already a problem, is therefore difficult to improve the condition to restore degraded forests, unless you can access water for environmental purposes of the relevant river flow. However, although able to perform an action of this style, can not be expected to establish high-quality species for biomass production, and that little action would be sustainable in the medium and long term.

With PBI values ​​less than 1.5 is unlikely to be able to generate real forests or similar formations, therefore have major limitations and any effect disruptor generate irreversible desertification, this situation is appreciated for the area between the period between late April and mid August, period which is also the time favorable for plant growth, which is an indicator that further confirms the possibility of restoration of native forests will result in poor forests, poor quality of biomass production and highly dependent on dry period to which they are exposed for the next 7 months. 

Now that you can understand that any action that is exerted on the native forest and degraded, (this is very rich in native and endemic species, both plants and animals (mainly poultry and insects)), can have very negative effects on the recoverability of these in medium and long term, this otherwise entail a substantial degradation of soil resources, may also have been affected by the same activities that led to the loss of vegetation, such as mining and agricultural activities. This shows that either an activity that produces current satisfaction can lead to desertification of the area and affect the possibilities for future development, has now seen the encroachment of the desert to the area, with the particular case of Putaendo, but the problem is not just local, but regional and may in the not too distant to affect southern regions (up to Ohiggins's region). 

If this also relates to global problems of abrupt climate change,decline and altered precipitation patterns, soil salinization and others, the picture becomes even more negative, yet unpredictable. Therefore, it is I think, should carry out programs for the protection of plant formations with special features, such as the sclerophyllous forest and the great diversity of species that have both plant and animals (mainly poultry and insects). In addition we should generate consistent protection plans at the regional rather than local level to try to stop desertification processes or at least control them. 

So the task for everyone to read this reflection is that hopefully think well on the use made of resources, the level of pollution and waste that we can generate daily, the least we can do is raise awareness that it is everyone's problem and that it must begin at home, plant a tree is not enough, but help. Local initiatives can make restoration and planting with native species, there are several funds .... just missing the action.

These diagrams show the integrated climate-plant with an ecophysiological correction factor, I think that gave me the area is a desert in power, triggering all such transformation is progressive and substantial loss of existing vegetation. If you do not stop this now, tomorrow will be too late.

Thanks for reading!!.