Monday, January 30, 2023
Staff
The UF agricultural institute is set to report citrus damage at $247 million; horticultural crops at $227 million. COURTESY PHOTO
A soon-to-be-released report will estimate Florida’s agriculture industry sustained about $1.07 billion in damages from Hurricane Ian, with growers of citrus, vegetable and horticultural crops taking the biggest hits from the wind, rains and flooding.
But citrus growers think the estimate doesn’t show the full damage from the storm.
The pending report from the University of Florida-Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences will fine-tune preliminary estimates issued days after the deadly Category 4 storm hit Southwest Florida on Sept. 28 and crossed the state.
Christa Court, director of the UF/IFAS Economic Impact Analysis Program, told members of the Senate Agriculture Committee last week that researchers have gained a better understanding from growers about what happened in fields since the initial estimates were released in early October.
“These climate-related disasters are the most destructive to agriculture. Agriculture is a seasonal activity,” Court said. “So, we really have to pay attention to what was in the field at the time of the particular disaster that we’re looking at. And at what stage was it.”
University of Florida scientists will use artificial intelligence technology to quantify damage to fruits and vegetables.
UF/IFAS scientist Yiannis Ampatzidis has developed Agroview and AgroSense at his lab at the Southwest Florida Research and Education Center. His newest project is to develop a computer model to use his existing technology to count damaged or dead crops.
He has received a nearly $300,000 grant from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture to use Agroview and AgroSense for the times extreme weather arrives.
Currently, Agroview takes aerial and ground images to determine fruit-tree characteristics, such as height, canopy size, leaf density, health and the number of fruit.
Over the next three months, Ampatzidis and his team will gather aerial and ground images of tomatoes, peppers and citrus on farms in South and Central Florida. Six to eight months after the first round of data-gathering, scientists will return to the same farms to collect more images and data.
Scientists will develop and train an AI model to analyze the images. The technology will then be able to automatically recognize and detect damaged crops, fallen trees, broken limbs, ruined tomato and pepper plants, fallen trees and flooded areas.
The institute is set to report citrus damages at $247 million, horticultural crops at $227 million, vegetables and melons at $204.6 million, non-citrus fruits and tree nuts at $137.7 million, field and row crops at $130 million and livestock and animal products at $122.7 million.
The storm was the latest blow to the citrus industry, which has struggled for two decades with deadly citrus-greening disease, as well as Florida’s continued residential and commercial growth, foreign competition and changing drinking habits.
Shannon Shepp, executive director of the Department of Citrus, said the UF institute focused on fruit losses, rather than tree losses. She said the industry will seek between $387 million and $635 million in federal relief.
Estimated citrus production for the current growing season in Florida is a little more than 50% of last year’s crop, marking what would be the lowest output since the 1929-1930 season.
For many growers, the full extent of the damage won’t be known until the crops come in, Court acknowledged.
The updated estimate also will factor in the impacts of recent winter freezes on crops, Court said.
The UF institute initially estimated industry losses at $786.6 million to $1.56 billion. It estimated citrus losses, for example at $146.9 million to $304.3 million.
Roughly 63% of the agricultural land affected by the storm is used for grazing. ¦
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