Sustainable water management in quality wine-making

We present an innovative platform, based on Information and Communication Technology, specifically conceived for improving water management and crop production in key Mediterranean agronomic fields such as olive growing and viticulture. The platform is based on the development of a novel set of biosensors able to directly measure the plant water stress condition rather than acquiring indirect measures from the environment. These biosensing nodes are organized in an onfield wireless sensor network capable of acquiring, continuously, a large amount of data centrally collected and made available to a decision system and trained operators for the optimization of the use of the water resource and the exploitation of deficit irrigation practice to maximize crop water productivity and/or orientate the characteristics of the final product. Key features of the platform are near low-power requirements, wireless connectivity, ease of use, minimal maintenance requirement, minimum interaction with farming activities.