Technology solution to preserve birdlife during mechanised night-time harvesting in hedgerow olive groves

A Spanish Digital Innovation Hub focused to the agri-food sector has launched an open innovation initiative in order to solve digitisation challenges coming from agri-food entities. In this context, they are currently seeking to solve the following challenge: integration of technological solutions in order to preserve birdlife in mechanised night-time harvesting in hedgerow olive groves. Andalusia is the main European region in cultivated area of the olive grove and the world leader in olive oil and table olives production, being committed to applying environmentally friendly techniques, which are key to support biodiversity and sustainability. In recent decades, olive growing has evolved considerably, experiencing important changes on a variety of aspects, such as the planting, management and cultivation systems, making the Andalusian olive grove very heterogeneous. In particular, hedgerow olive groves are defined by a specific planting model, where the olive trees form a continuous mass of vegetation (hedgerow) with dimensions in height and width determined by the harvesting machine. Farmers and agricultural businesses are increasingly demanding hedgerow olive groves, which are characterised by being a highly technified and productive olive grove. One of its main features is that it is harvested by over-the-row machines, which are able to work almost without interruption for 24 hours. Considering this, night-time harvesting has become essential in hedgerow olive groves, not only in terms of economic impact, but also for the optimisation of resources and even for the quality of the olive oil. This practice, however, needs to be carried out without affecting biodiversity, especially birdlife, with this becoming a priority objective to be able to maintain this type of production system. In this regard, technological solutions are sought through this request to solve the challenge of performing night-time mechanised harvesting in hedgerow olive groves in a sustainable way, preserving the birdlife present through any of the following agreements: commercial agreement with technical assistance, research cooperation, services agreement or technical cooperation agreement.