Adoption of precision agriculture in vineyard

Wine is a very famous beverage in the world. It is an alcoholic beverage made by fermentation of grape juice. The environmental conditions and the skills of winemaker are important factors that determine the quality of wine. Thailand has over the years developed and presented wine of high quality to global wine market. Because of sub-tropical climate of Thailand, winemakers have to understand the impact of environment conditions such as the micro-climate and soil conditions etc. Most of decisions made by the winemakers call on information from personal knowledge, field document and notebook entries. At present, precision agriculture (PA) has obviously become a fast growing field in advanced agriculture. It has been widely employed for management of modern farms, especially the vineyards. Several tools and technologies can help winemakers to make more informed decisions for managing vineyards, regarding selection of various agro-inputs, selection of time of various farming activities such as soil preparation, cultivation, irrigation management and harvesting etc. In this research, we developed a so-called ldquosmart vineyardrdquo system and investigated various types of sensors for vineyard monitoring. This system was successful tested in real vineyard (GranMonte vineyard, Khao Yai national park, Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand) and is now ready for commercialization.