CrackSense was honored to participate in the 15th International Citrus Congress (ICC 2024), held from November 10–15 in Jeju, Korea.
This global gathering offered an exceptional opportunity to engage with global experts, researchers, and industry professionals, all striving to advance citriculture through innovative and sustainable approaches.
About the 15th International Citrus Congress
The International Citrus Congress, organised by the International Society of Citriculture, is a global platform that brings together scholars, researchers, and industry experts to discuss advancements and challenges in citriculture.
ICC 2024, hosted in Jeju, Korea, focused on the theme “Human-healthily, Environment-friendly, Industry-productively” and provided a venue for knowledge exchange and collaboration to address pressing issues such as climate change and sustainable agricultural practices.
Over the five days, the program featured keynote speeches, workshops, and poster sessions. Key topics included advancements in biotechnology, germplasm, plant physiology, and climate change. The congress also showcased the role of modern agricultural practices and technology in shaping a sustainable future for the citrus industry.
When it comes to major challenges in the citrus industry, fruit cracking emerges as one of the most pressing issues. It can affect over 50% of the harvest in some years, with unpredictable patterns driven by interactions between climatic variables, management practices, and the fruit’s developmental stages. These complexities make it particularly challenging to develop a comprehensive predictive model tailored to specific crops and regions.
CrackSense’s Role at ICC 2024
Avi Sadka, the project coordinator of CrackSense, participated in a session focused on the challenge of fruit cracking and the role of advanced sensing technologies. The session explored the potential of predicting cracking incidence by scanning fruits and trees early, before the disorder becomes visible. This approach could enable farmers to identify risks proactively and take preventative measures.
CrackSense focuses on upscaling sensing technologies to monitor fruit cracking and yield loss at multiple levels—fruit, tree, plot, and region. By integrating this data with agri-environmental monitoring, the project aims to generate predictive models that assess cracking risk across different scales, from local plots to entire countries, for a given year.
The findings and data generated by CrackSense, presented during ICC 2024, underscore its commitment to addressing critical challenges in the citrus industry and paving the way for more resilient agricultural practices.
