By Tina Buice
The Citrus Research and Field Trial (CRAFT) program was created in 2019. Its work was centered on the mission of moving lab and research solutions into groves for commercial-scale field trials, collecting data on those trials and creating an integrated data management solution to present the results. Four years later, with more than 10,000 acres of new plantings and nearly 9,000 acres of additional Existing Tree Therapies trials, the program remains highly focused on accomplishing its mission.
The latest milestone for the program came with the rollout of the CRAFT public dashboard during the Florida Citrus Industry Annual Conference in June. The dashboard is a visualization tool used to display and share data collected by participants in the CRAFT program. This dashboard allows citrus growers and other interested parties to see ongoing results of selected management practices, treatments and therapies through the participants’ data collections as well as third-party health and nutrition measurements.
See craftfdn.org to view the CRAFT public dashboard. Like the CRAFT program itself, this tool is continually evolving and growing. The CRAFT team will continue to develop and refine this tool over time to better display and present the data to all citrus growers, researchers and interested parties.
PLOTS AND LAYOUTS
The CRAFT public dashboard is organized into five primary tabs located at the bottom of each page. The landing page, or the Examine Plots and Layouts tab, provides information related to every project enrolled in the CRAFT program. A sidebar offering Directions for Use is located on the far left side of the page to help walk viewers through the dashboard.
Filters located across the top of the page allow users to sort data by contract year, contract number, county, ecoregion, trial group, rootstock and scion. This functionality remains the same throughout each tab on the dashboard for a user-friendly experience. In addition to the filtering options, all projects are displayed on the map and can be searched and selected by zooming in on the desired location. Once a project is selected, details related to the trial will populate in the Plot Details panel.
GROWERS SURVEY
The second tab, Examine Growers Survey, allows users to review and monitor participants’ management practices through their data submissions. The survey list in the center of the page shows the most recently submitted surveys by default. After selecting a survey using the filters at the top of the page, or by simply selecting a survey from the Surveys List pane, the survey details will populate in the panel to the right. This panel also features several tabs located at the bottom that give details on specific input and harvest categories.
AEROBOTICS DATA
The third tab, Examine Aerobotics Data, will allow users to view the data collected by CRAFT-partner Aerobotics using their drone systems. On this tab, users will be able to view tree health and canopy volumes for each project based on NDVI and NDRE indices over a series of flights performed twice in the first year and annually thereafter. More information on what technology these indices use and what the results show is included in the sidebar.
CHARTS AND GRAPHS
The Examine Charts and Graphs tab is a fan favorite! This page provides a visual summary of projects in the CRAFT program. Like the rest of the dashboard, this tab is powered by filters at the top of the page, letting users narrow down and refine the data set they would like to view. These charts and graphs summarize data based on acres planted, experimental units by rootstock, trial groups and more. This tab also provides average annual production costs for all inputs from land preparation to equipment operation.
HARVEST DATA
The final tab is the Examine Harvest Data page. Cumulative harvest data is shown and can also be filtered by project ID and harvest date for a more streamlined report. Due to tree age (the oldest projects are currently three to four years old) and the impact of Hurricanes Ian and Nicole, harvest data is currently limited. As the program continues to grow, so will this valuable data set, which includes pre-harvest fruit drop, yield and quality.
Tina Buice is assistant program manager for the CRAFT Foundation.
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