WEB-BASED HARVEST FORECAST OF CAULIFLOWER FOR THE AGRI -FOOD-CHAIN

A web-based Danish ICT system to forecast the harvest time of cauliflower is presented. The system combines a deterministic growth model of cauliflower with an online weather database and an online production database for fruit and vegetable growers, which is still under development. The system enables growers to retrieve an updated harvest forecast of a particular planting from the field with an advanced mobile telephone. From the office pc the grower can follow the growth of all cauliflower crops to obtain an early warning if the growth differs from the scheduled, thus distorting the delivery plan. The system also gives wholesale dealers access to aggregated results from their associated growers, showing the expected number of delivered curds from each grower each week.