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Managing the Micro Climates of Tea Regions - Continuing the Legacy of Tea Cultivation with Intelligent Management

2023-07-13

Author：Hsien-Tsung Tsai / Section Chief, Tea Research and Extension Station, Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan
Author：Chih-Yi Hu / Chief, Tea Research and Extension Station, Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan

The Council of Agriculture's Tea Research and Extension Station traversed mountains across Taiwan to visit the small, scattered tea farms that are the primary producers of Taiwan’s tea, and to help develop smart management systems for tea farmers. A total of 23 micro climate weather stations were established across Taiwan's 5 major tea regions; IoT technology was utilized to integrate monitoring data from each station to allow tea farmers to view real-time weather information such as temperature, daily rainfall, humidity, daily solar irradiance, wind direction, wind speed, soil moisture content, and soil temperature for their micro climate.

Figure 1. Tea Research and Extension Station - Micro Climate Observation Network and Monitoring System.Figure 1. Tea Research and Extension Station - Micro Climate Observation Network and Monitoring System.

Thanks to the efforts of the research team, the Taiwan Tea Production and Management Information Platform was developed to offer micro climate observation data and also to synchronously release severe weather alerts for typhoons, heavy rain, cold waves, or high temperatures issued by the Central Weather Bureau, thereby allowing farmers to prepare in advance for disasters.The platform is easy to use. Tea farmers need only select the variety of their tea trees, their budding date, and expected harvest date for the system to automatically predict the number of leaves that will germinate on the tea trees as well as an estimation of tea bud yield. The system also evaluates the risk of pests based on weather changes and makes recommendations to farmers to utilize pesticides when necessary as prevention measures.

Figure 2. Tea Research and Extension Station - Taiwan Tea Production and Management Information Platform.Figure 2. Tea Research and Extension Station - Taiwan Tea Production and Management Information Platform.

The research team utilized drones to establish standard procedures for spraying tea fields with chemicals/biological agents to prevent pests and diseases. This resulted in a ten-fold increase in efficiency over human labor and helped protect the health of workers. Taiwan Tea Production and Management Information Platform helps maintain tea leaf production and protect the environment, and can also serve as a solution to labor shortages. It is in line with the UN SDG of "ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns".

Figure 3. Compared to traditional chemical sprays that expose workers to pesticides (figure A), managing pests and diseases with drones that administer chemicals at fixed speeds, heights, and amounts (figure B) decreases the risk of worker exposure to pesticides.Figure 3. Compared to traditional chemical sprays that expose workers to pesticides (figure A), managing pests and diseases with drones that administer chemicals at fixed speeds, heights, and amounts (figure B) decreases the risk of worker exposure to pesticides.
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