The cultivation of sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) faces significant challenges, including climatic volatility, water scarcity, labour shortages, and the imperative for consistent premium fruit quality. This research demonstrates the transformative potential of an integrated digital agriculture system to enhance cherry yield, quality, and resource-use efficiency in a commercial orchard. Over three growing seasons, some several hectare cherry block were instrumented with a suite of technologies: a dense network of soil moisture and microclimatic sensors, multispectral and thermal drones, a motorized cable-driven phenotyping platform for high-resolution canopy imaging, and a cloud-based data integration platform. Precision irrigation was managed via a decision-support system (DSS) using real-time soil-plant-atmosphere continuum data, while variable-rate nutrient application was guided by canopy vigour maps derived from drone imagery. Results indicated a 22% increase in marketable yield and a 18% improvement in water-use efficiency compared to a control block managed with conventional practices. Fruit quality parameters, including average fruit size (increased by 12%), soluble solids content, and fruit firmness, were significantly enhanced. Canopy-level thermal data correlated strongly with plant water status, enabling pre-visual stress detection and mitigating sunburn incidence by 40%. The discussion contextualizes these findings within the paradigm of precision horticulture, analysing the economic viability of the technological investment through a partial budget analysis, which showed a return on investment within four years. We critically examine data integration challenges and the scalability of such systems. The research concludes that a sensor-driven, data-informed management approach is not merely a technological upgrade but a necessary evolution for sustainable, high-intensity cherry production, offering a resilient pathway to optimize both physiological outcomes and economic returns in the face of global agricultural pressures.

digital agriculture, cherry yield, quality, technology, digitalization

agronomy

Presentation: poster