TY - CONF

T1 - Performance of a procedure for yield estimation in fruit orchards

AU - Aravena Zamora, Felipe

AU - Potin, Camila

AU - Wulfsohn, Dvora-Laio

AU - Zamora Lagos, Ines

AU - Garcia-Finana, Marta

N1 - Conference code: Paper No. 1009638

PY - 2010

Y1 - 2010

N2 - Early estimation of expected fruit tree yield is important for the market planning and forgrowers and exporters to plan for labour and boxes. Large variations in tree yield may be found,posing a challenge for accurate yield estimation. We evaluated a multilevel systematic samplingprocedure for fruit yield estimation. In the Spring of 2009 we estimated the total number of fruit inseveral rows in each of 14 commercial fruit orchards growing apple, kiwi, and table grapes in centralChile. Survey times were 10-100 minutes for apples, 85 minutes for table grapes, and up to 150minutes for kiwis. At harvest in the Fall, the fruit were counted to obtain the true yield. Yields rangedfrom lows of several thousand (grape bunches), to highs of more than 40 thousand fruit (apples,kiwis). In 11 orchards, true errors less than 10% were obtained. In two highly variable orchards weobtained absolute true errors of about 20%. An analysis based on systematic sub-sampling ofsample data across each sampling stage was used to determine how to distribute sampling effort toacheive the desired precision.

AB - Early estimation of expected fruit tree yield is important for the market planning and forgrowers and exporters to plan for labour and boxes. Large variations in tree yield may be found,posing a challenge for accurate yield estimation. We evaluated a multilevel systematic samplingprocedure for fruit yield estimation. In the Spring of 2009 we estimated the total number of fruit inseveral rows in each of 14 commercial fruit orchards growing apple, kiwi, and table grapes in centralChile. Survey times were 10-100 minutes for apples, 85 minutes for table grapes, and up to 150minutes for kiwis. At harvest in the Fall, the fruit were counted to obtain the true yield. Yields rangedfrom lows of several thousand (grape bunches), to highs of more than 40 thousand fruit (apples,kiwis). In 11 orchards, true errors less than 10% were obtained. In two highly variable orchards weobtained absolute true errors of about 20%. An analysis based on systematic sub-sampling ofsample data across each sampling stage was used to determine how to distribute sampling effort toacheive the desired precision.

KW - Scientific disciplines and methods

M3 - Paper

Y2 - 12 June 2010 through 20 June 2010

ER -