During the harvesting season and the preparation for the next growing season many workers are needed in the olive orchards. Because of COVID-19, farmers now have difficulty to find enough workers. And on top of that, they need to check for symptoms, protect their workers and prove that they do so.
To help the olive farmers, Use Case 3.3 challenged itself to extend their existing decision support system with some extra useful features. And they succeeded.
Use Case 3.3 has built a decision support system for olive farmers. Based on diverse data from the fields (radiation, humidity, soil conductivity), the application calculates timing and amount of irrigation. Subsequent real-time monitoring during the growth of the olives, the harvesting and milling process makes it possible to control (and thus improve) the quality of the olive oil.
So what is new? Rafael Angel Ferrer Martinez, Use Case coordinator: ‘We added two features since the start of the COVID-19 crisis. First of all, a simple temperature check. Every morning, the manager checks each field worker’s temperature and gives them their individual protection items (gloves, face mask, etc.). Combined with other data, this makes it possible to trace back who’s had contact with whom in case a worker develops COVID-19 symptoms.’
The second feature helps farmers to find workers when they need them. ‘We cooperate with Asaja (the Spanish Young Farmers Association). A farmer who needs more personnel, can say so inside the application and contact people looking for work.’
‘It turns out that the farmers who test our application are quite happy with both features. They’re useful. So we decided to keep them in the final version that will be finished this summer.’
