Development of fruit growing and fruit science in Latvia has always been closely linked to the development of the whole country. After the founding of the independent Latvia state in 1918, fruit growing developed rapidly. Although in the Soviet times the situation was not favourable for quality fruit growing, research and breeding continued with good results. After Latvia regained independence, private land property rights were restored, and interest in intensive orchard establishment and growing technologies increased rapidly, which demanded change in the research focus. At present, the Latvia State Institute of Fruit-Growing is the leading institution in this field, working in cooperation with Pūre Horticultural Research Centre, Latvian Plant Protection Research Centre, Institute of Agrobiotechology, and Faculty of Food Technology, Latvia University of Agriculture, Laboratory of Plant Mineral Nutrition, Institute of Biology, University of Latvia. Research is carried out in the following directions: breeding and cultivar evaluation; genetics and molecular biology; plant pathology and entomology; orchard management; experimental processing and storage.

ISHS VII International Cherry Symposium The effect of rain protective covering on sweet cherry fruit quality

Orchard management can benefit greatly from the use of modern technology to reach higher yields, decrease costs and achieve more sustainable farming. Implementation or such a smart farming approach into orchard management can be realised via application of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for data collection and artificial intelligence (AI) for yield estimation and forecasting. On top of that, a digital twin of the orchard can be implemented to represent the physical system of the orchard in the digital format allowing implement modern data-driven decision-making based on fruit-growing automation.The aim of this study is to present a digital twin based on application of UAV and AI for orchard management that is being developed as part of a research project lzp-2021/1-0134. At this moment, we are developing a user-centred design which is oriented to satisfy horticulture specialists’ needs for an autonomous monitoring system and to help them in decision-making. Within the framework of this study an enterprise model of orchard management is designed, which supports the digital twin concept and provides autonomous orchard monitoring. The study is scoped with subjects: apples, pears and cherries, and yield management based on orchard monitoring using UAV.