In southern Europe, the agricultural economy is big, and the olive sector is an essential part of it. Europe is the biggest producer of olives worldwide. EU contributes to about 70% of the world’s overall production of olives and is the net leading exporter to North America, and other areas that do not produce it. Little olive fruit flies, however, are the bane of these giant olive farms, which if not contained/controlled can lead to a tragic/dismal harvest.
This is where Oliwes (Olive Warning Enterprise Suite) comes in. Oliwes is one of the products under AGRICOLUS suite. This project is focused in the Umbria Region in Italy to provide a platform that will alert farmers of endemic, and new or foreign diseases.
Fruit flies, specifically Xirella fastidiosa and Bactrocera oleae, are serious pests to olives especially in countries around the Mediterranean Sea like Greece, France, Italy, Croatia, Spain, Montenegro, Turkey, and Albania. Olive trees take up to 20% of the cultivated land area in Greece, and 8-9% in Spain, Portugal and Italy. There are over 1.8 million farms dedicated to olive plantations in EU, this accounts to 60% of the farms in Greece and 40% in Spain.
The tunnelling of larvae from these olive fruit flies lead to about 30% loss of olive yields in Mediterranean countries, especially in Greece and Italy where large commercial production occurs. As a result, the quantity and the quality of olives are affected. Before, farmers can contain these pests because the cultural cycle was quite predictable back then, and they created a specific calendar for treatments. However, new plant diseases arrived which raised the infectivity of olives, and farmers are not prepared for this new kind of problem.
Oliwes cooperates with agronomists, farmers and associations to provide the most effective course of action for each plant disease, and gives alerts through the participants preferred device (mobile or web). The platform allows users to receive and manage alerts in the most efficient way. It also keeps track of the diffusion of the olive fruit flies in the olive farms.
Another useful feature of Oliwes is that the application optimizes warehouse operations on agricultural plots and facilitates reporting according to European directives. This can substantially help farmers to manage their work in the fields and in securing phytosanitary certification for their farms.
Oliwes is open to possible collaborations with medium and big-sized companies that have adopted the application for different kinds of cultivations, especially for the wine.
