AGES uses drones to map grapevine disease

Austria’s Agency for Health and Food Safety is using drones and artificial intelligence to identify vineyards affected by golden yellowing disease, an incurable illness transmitted by grapevine leafhoppers, ORF reported on Friday.

A drone flew over vineyards in Gols, in the Neusiedl am See district, on Thursday as part of the AGES project. The aim is not to detect the leafhopper directly because the insect is only a few millimetres long and is barely visible to the naked eye, even from close range.

Instead, artificial intelligence will analyse aerial images to identify possible hotspots of infection, AGES project manager Helga Reisenzein said.

The system is intended to make future searches for affected vines more efficient. At present, grape growers inspect their vineyards row by row. If a vine has turned yellow, it must be removed together with its roots.

Burgenland Chamber of Agriculture President Nikolaus Berlakovich also visited the drone project in Gols. “As the Chamber of Agriculture, we are extremely interested in containing this disease,” he said.

The AGES project will run for three years to assess how reliably the infection can be detected from the air. Images covering about 45 hectares of vineyards have already been recorded and are now being analysed.