The MCAPEFA project addresses two issues. The first concerns designing a low-cost multispectral camera using only available components and open-source code. There is no need for specific tools or skills to assemble the developed device. Also, the proposed device is modular, and some components can be removed or changed for additional savings. This new camera contains nine narrow spectral bands in the visible and near-infrared range and one thermal infrared channel. It is 7 to 8 times cheaper than similar, commercially available devices. The second problem the MCAPEFA project addresses is detecting grapevine disease Flavescence dorée directly in the vineyard using hyperspectral and multispectral imaging. Flavescence dorée (FD) is one of the most important and damaging grapevine diseases that have severely threatened vineyards in recent years.
A multispectral camera is the most used device for collecting data for precision agriculture (PA), which is the key component of sustainable agriculture in the 21st century. Only with PA it is possible to produce more food and resources for other industries with less input while reducing ecological issues, especially environmental pollution, most prominent through the contamination of drinking water and aquatic ecosystems with unoptimized fertilization and pesticide usage. In the EU, most farms are small (86 % of all farms in the EU) and do not use precision agriculture to improve their productivity and reduce environmental pollution. The leading cause is a high initial investment in the equipment, especially cameras and drones. For example, in Italy, only 4.4 % of all small farms use drones in 2022. Therefore, it is crucial for global food security that small farms implement precision agriculture (PA) to become sustainable.
Furthermore, small farms are vital for preserving the territory and local rural areas' economic development. They guarantee the permanence of populations and agricultural activities in rural areas, contributing to incomes, social capital, local knowledge, and cultural heritage. Also, only PA can deal with climate change, especially drought and heat waves during spring and summer, when prolonged exposure to extremely high temperatures can negatively affect the plants. The MCAPEFA deals with this issue by providing the design of low-cost multispectral camera and reducing initial investments.
FD is an incurable, severe epidemic disease of grapevine in Europe caused by FD-phytoplasma. It is a quarantine disease with the obligation to uproot each infected plant to eliminate sources of FD. When the infection exceeds 20 % of all plants, the whole vineyard must be removed. Currently, the only available solution is to scout vineyards for infected plants. Trained agronomists and experts conduct it, but it is time-consuming, and each vineyard is controlled once in one or two years due to a lack of skilled individuals. And Flavescence dorée is constantly spreading around. For example, in Piedmont (Italy), from 2003 to 2018, FD increased from a very restricted zone to almost 25 % of the whole Piedmont grapevine area. In Trentino Alto-Adige (Italy), FD's presence nearly doubled in just one year (from 2021 to 2022).
The main goal of the MCAPEFA projects is to improve the adoption of precision farming in small farms by designing a low-cost multispectral camera and its use for detecting grapevine disease Flavescence dorée.
