Climate change, weather fluctuations and especially unpredictable precipitation have in recent years been strongly affecting Czech hop growing. A new project called FOR HOPS (PRO CHMEL) brings a solution. Here, experts from all the world work together using state-of-the-art technology to help hop growers irrigate hop yards more efficiently. The main goal is to preserve a sufficient amount of Czech hops of sufficient quality for the future.
Companies working together with hop growers in the Saaz region are Plzeňský Prazdroj, Asahi, Microsoft and Agritecture. The latest technology is meant to help hop growers monitor precipitation, humidity and the content of nutrients in soil at the level of individual parts of hop yards. This technology will also show how hop plants respond to weather changes and the nature of water and minerals. The project will bring a software solution which will provide growers with detailed information for optimal growing of plants. It will show them how intensively individual parts of hop yards are supposed to be irrigated so that the plants thrive and, at the same time, so that growers do not waste water, which is scarce, especially in some parts of the Saaz region. New activities follow on from the project Smart Hop Yards (Smart chmelnice) which delivered the first results during this year´s harvest.
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Inspiro