The experience of application of a web-based Decision Support System in the Iberian peninsula for the sustainable management of vineyards

Directive 128/2009/EC on the Sustainable Use of Pesticides makes mandatory the adoption of integrated pest management (IPM) across Europe. IPM promotes low pesticide control of harmful organisms based on crop monitoring and decision support tools. Vite.net® is a Decision Support System (DSS) developed by Horta (www.horta-srl.com), a spin-off company of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, in Italy. The DSS is a web-based tool able to: i) collect multiple information/data in real-time about different vineyard components (air, soil, plants, pests, and diseases) by using IoT technologies; ii) analyze these data by advanced modelling and bigdata solutions; and iii) make up-to-date information, alerts and decision supports for vineyard management. The DSS considers grapevine growth and development, risk for diseases (downy and powdery mildews, black-rot and Botrytis bunch rot) and pests (berry moth, American leafhopper and mealybugs), protection dynamics of fungicide applications, and abiotic stresses (drought, low and high temperatures). The DSS is available for Italian growers since 2013 and it is used by hundreds of farmers. Since 2015, the DSS is available also in Spain and Portugal. In this work, we show the results of two pilot runs developed in Spain and Portugal to evaluate the use of vite.net, primarily for the management of downy mildew in vineyards. In Spain, the DSS was evaluated in the Penedès region (Nort-East Spain) by the regional service of plant health (SISTEMIO project). The evaluation was performed in 18 vineyards in 2016 and 2017, by comparing the DSS output concerning primary and secondary infections of Plasmopara viticola, fungicide treatments performed by the growers, and the disease development. In Portugal, the DSS was evaluated in the Alto Douro region (North Portugal) by the Association for the Development of Viticulture in the Douro Region (ADVID). In this case, the evaluation was performed in two vineyards from 2016 to 2018, by comparing the DSS output with disease observations in the vineyards; additional validations are still on going on 4 vineyards in 2019. Results of both pilot runs show a substantial agreement between the DSS output and vineyards’ observations.