A Central Queensland University researcher has received a $180,000 innovation grant for a project with Perfection Fresh Australia to help optimise mango harvesting.
CQ University’s Dr Zhenglin Wang received the Queensland Government Industry Research Fellowship funding to contribute to a cloud-based system for planning the mango harvest for growers in the Burdekin, Mareeba and Childers regions.
The system will collect data about fruit maturity and crop load on farm using LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), machine vision and time-of-flight cameras to help remove manual counts and introduce automated assessments.
“We plan to automate how mango growers estimate the spread of flowering as well as estimation of fruit number, weight and maturity,” Wang said.
“Machine vision rigs on farm vehicles will move through the orchards mapping fruit attributes and, when the images and data are processed, growers will view results via a mobile phone app.”
Perfection Fresh Australia has the rights to the Calypso, with Wang partnering with the fruit-grower marketer for the project, as well as the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries to test technologies on the trees planted in different densities.
“The intent of the work is to create an online platform that shares information through the Calypso mango supply chain to improve harvest planning, fruit management and marketing,” he said.
Queensland and the Northern territory produce around 95 per cent of Australia’s mango crop, worth $180 million a year.
Minister for Innovation and Tourism Industry Development Kate Jones said horticulture is the second largest primary industry in Queensland, employing around 25,000 people.
“Farmers and marketers have the challenge of knowing how much crop is on tree and when it will be ready for harvest,” she said.
“China, Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore love Queensland mangoes and this project will support export marketing.”
Wang’s work with the mango industry is one of 35 projects across the state supported by the $7.62 million Advance Queensland Industry Research Fellowships.
