Special Issue "Less Impact, More Resilience and Welfare: Computer and Electronics to Improve the Sustainability in Agriculture Production"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2021.

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Paolo Liberati
E-Mail
Guest Editor
Agricultural and Food Sciences Department (DISTAL), University of Bologna - Viale G. Fanin 50, Bologna, Italy
Interests: climatization; computer science; biogas; animal welfare; automation; simulation models; animal housing; precision livestock farming
Prof. Dr. Valda Rondelli
E-Mail Website
Assistant Guest Editor
Agricultural and Food Sciences Department (DISTAL), University of Bologna - Viale G. Fanin 50, Bologna, Italy
Interests: safety of agricultural machines; tractor rollover sprayers; agricultural and forestry tractor; filtered and pressurized cabs
Dr. Alberto Assirelli
E-Mail Website
Assistant Guest Editor
Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA),Research Centre for Engineering and Agro-Food Processing; via della Pascolare, 16, Monterotondo Scalo (Rome), Italy
Interests: precision organic farming; mechanical and physical wedding; VRT approach in organic farming

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Sustainable Agriculture has many declinations depending on the actors involved or the specific aspects to be preserved and protected. Sustainability mainly refers to environmental and economic aspects, although the social aspects, addressed to improve life quality of the operators, together with their safety and health at work, are nowadays increasingly emphasized. Currently these are three subjects requiring more and more attention in reason of the climate changes, always in progress and, unfortunately, prone to cause extreme difficult situations in the future of our world.

In the context of this Special Issue, the aim is to highlight computer applications, sensors and electronics leading to improve the sustainability of the agricultural processes, reducing the environmental impact or increasing its resilience, as well as improving animal welfare.

Contributions using both the Precision farming approach (Precision Agriculture and Precision livestock farming) and the computer analysis and modeling (i.e. CFD, deep learning, emissions) are invited to disseminate new ideas and concepts addressed to enhance all sustainability declinations in agriculture, including organic farming approaches.

Dr. Paolo Liberati
Guest Editor

Prof. Valda Rondelli
Dr. Alberto Assirelli
Assistant Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • sustainability
  • environmental impact
  • computer science
  • sensors
  • electronics
  • automation
  • simulation models
  • precision farming
  • precision organic farming
  • mechanical and physical wedding
  • vrt approach in organic farming
  • vrt soil improver spreader
  • soil precision tillage in organic farming low input
  • precision spreading
  • reduced soil tillage in conservative agriculture
  • animal welfare
  • safety of agricultural machines
  • tractor rollover
  • sprayers
  • agricultural and forestry tractor
  • filtered and pressurized cabs
  • animal housing climatization and climate change resilience

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

Article
Canopy Index Evaluation for Precision Management in an Intensive Olive Orchard
Sustainability 2021, 13(15), 8266; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13158266 - 23 Jul 2021
Viewed by 412
Abstract
The evaluation of the canopy in orchard cultivation is a key aspect for the main cultivation techniques, such as pruning, thinning, harvesting, production and improved fruit quality. The possibility of having a periodic screening of the state of development of the vegetation can [...] Read more.
The evaluation of the canopy in orchard cultivation is a key aspect for the main cultivation techniques, such as pruning, thinning, harvesting, production and improved fruit quality. The possibility of having a periodic screening of the state of development of the vegetation can be of practical support to growers. Research on the application of precision agriculture has provided tools for reading and interpreting crops, and the resulting information is potentially useful. Many of the systems under study provide after monitoring information processing systems that reduce the timeliness of intervention. Especially in intensive systems such as olive groves, knowing the precise intervention points is often essential. In the present work, a multi-parameter instrument was used for field monitoring on the agricultural tractor to analyse the canopy. The system allows measuring various indicators such as height and density of the canopy and the temperature and humidity of the ambient air and at the leaf level. The first evaluation of the data made it possible to identify areas with greater vegetative concentration and greater or lesser development. The system made it possible to identify with good approximation the homogeneous areas, based on the Canopy Index (CI) evaluation to be subjected to subsequent and specific management efforts, dividing them into low, ordinary, and high vegetative growth. The results highlight the possibility of directly combining operators able to intervene with the same passage, selecting based on differences in growth, typical varietal specificities, and areas of deficient development or that are affected by plant diseases, confirming the objective of defining the areas of the orchard that require different management and workload techniques. Full article
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