This thesis analyzes the potential for producers in Virginia to successfully participate in the market for berry crops, which include strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and other novelty berries. A survey of current berry crop producers in Virginia is used to gain insight into the supply-side of the market, and a series of personal interviews with direct market berry crop producers and buyers from retail, wholesale, and processor outlets are conducted to assess the demand-side of the market. The results show that berry crop producers in the state are diverse along many dimensions, with certain groups better positioned to serve the unsaturated demand that exists through direct outlets and others better aligned to serve the increasing demand that exists among indirect buyers. Diversification into berry crop production involves high levels of risk, but the potential returns are likewise high. / Master of Science

Submitted by Gabriela Lopes (gmachadolopesufpel@gmail.com) on 2017-11-06T14:55:34Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Dissertação Patrícia Milech Einhardt 2017.pdf: 2092991 bytes, checksum: 4e24b180491a12a086061863b12e0484 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Aline Batista (alinehb.ufpel@gmail.com) on 2018-01-02T13:05:29Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação Patrícia Milech Einhardt 2017.pdf: 2092991 bytes, checksum: 4e24b180491a12a086061863b12e0484 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-01-02T13:05:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação Patrícia Milech Einhardt 2017.pdf: 2092991 bytes, checksum: 4e24b180491a12a086061863b12e0484 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-08-30 / As estimativas dos parâmetros genéticos desempenham papel fundamental nos programas de melhoramento, pois permitem a predição dos valores genéticos dos candidatos à seleção, propiciando um processo mais acurado. Os objetivos do presente estudo foram: a) avaliar a variação genética de genitores e progênies na geração F1 e estimar a herdabilidade no sentido amplo e restrito dos caracteres de massa média das frutas e teor de sólidos solúveis; b) caracterizar a forma das frutas de duas cultivares e nove seleções e seus descendentes F1; e c) avaliar a capacidade de conservação pós-colheita de frutas de sete seleções e duas cultivares de amoreira-preta e seus índices de mercadabilidade. Os genótipos estudados foram provenientes do Programa de Melhoramento da Embrapa Clima Temperado. O valor médio estimado da herdabilidade no sentido amplo, para massa da fruta (0,79) e sólidos solúveis (0,68) foi alto. Já no sentido restrito, para massa da fruta (0,05) foi baixo e para o teor de sólidos solúveis (0,47) foi médio. Isso demonstra que a eficiência de seleção é maior para teor de sólidos solúveis do que para massa das frutas. Observou-se que o formato das frutas das progênies tende a ser próximo daquele dos genitores. Na avaliação pós-colheita as seleções Black 139, 170 e 276 e as cultivares BRS Xingu e Tupy apresentaram boa conservação após sete dias de armazenamento a 4°C, com índice de mercadabilidade acima de 85%, o que é considerado aceitável para comercialização. Foi observado também que a cultivar BRS Xingu é similar a cultivar Tupy em firmeza e massa média das frutas e inferior em sólidos solúveis, porém, apresentou melhor conservação póscolheita. / Estimation of genetic parameters play a key role in the improvement on breeding programs because they allow the prediction of the genetic values of the candidates to selection, providing a more reliable process. The objectives of the present study were: a) to evaluate the genetic variation of parents and their F1 progenies and to estimate heritability in the broad and restricted sense of the average fruit mass and soluble solids content; B) characterize the fruit shape of two cultivars and nine selections and their F1 descendants; and c) to evaluate the fruit post-harvest conservation capacity of seven selections and two blackberry cultivars and their indices of marketability. The genotypes studied were from the Embrapa Clima Temperado Improvement Program. The broad sense heritability for average fruit mass (0.79) and soluble solids (0.68) was high, whereas the restricted sense heritability was low for fruit mass (0.05) and medium for soluble solids content (0.47). This demonstrates that the selection efficiency is higher for soluble solids content than for fruit mass. It was observed that the fruit format of the progenies tends to be close to that of the parents. In the post-harvest evaluation, it was possible to conclude that the Black 139, 170 and 276 selections and the BRS Xingu and Tupy cultivars had good conservation after seven days of storage at 4°C, with a marketability index above 85%, which is considered aceptable by the market. It was also observed that the cultivar BRS Xingu is similar to Tupy cultivar in firmness and average mass of fruits and inferior in soluble solids, however, it has a better post harvest conservation.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-12-08T16:44:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 PGPV14MA139.pdf: 1586066 bytes, checksum: fd8ddaa6bc6742b77f888648d199a2e7 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-03-31 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Healthy and nutritive foods are more and more claimed by people. This makes native fruits suitable to be growing by traditional and family farmers. Greenberries of Rubus genus occur in subtropical regions and they are frequents in the Southern Brazilian flora. Fruits of green whiteRubus have peculiar taste that can be consumed in natura or processed as jam, sweets or juice. The objective of this research was to verify the presence of greenberries (Rubus spp.) in the Southern Plateau of Santa Catarina State, to characterise the habitat, and to systematize the ethno knowledge. The study was carry out in the municipalities of Cerro Negro, Campo Belo do Sul, Painel, Lages e São Joaquim. Forty three interviews were made with semi structured questioner. The informations were concerned the occurrence, uses, and cropping the wild greenberries. Habitats were described by 51 points sampled from the five municipalities. Plant species inside the area of the two meter diameter from the greenberries mother plants were identified. Results showed that family farmers are maintainers of wild greenberriesRubus spp. and they were willing to cultivate the specie at commercial scale. The fruit production of wild greenberries is pointed as profitable as they are at low cost cropping and they do not need chemicals to manage at field conditions. The most frequent use is to consume in natura and to make tee. The farmers stress the point that greenberries are medicinal and nutritional fruits as well. The habitats of greenberry plants include borders of forest and roads, field grass, and vegetation at first stage of succession. The speciesRubus spp. can establish in degraded areas so that it is adequate to domestication because its rusticity. Even neglected until now, the wild greenberry can be a good economic alternative crop for small farmers in the Southern Plateau of Santa Catarina State, BR / Alimentos nutritivos e saudáveis sãorequeridos de forma crescente pela sociedade, abrindo espaço a frutas nativas utilizadas por povos tradicionais e agricultores familiares. Amoreiras, frutas nativasdo gênero Rubus,distribuem-se em regiões de clima temperadoe são frequentemente observadasna flora sul brasileira. Frutos de amoreira apresentam sabor peculiar, consumidosin natura, geleias, doces e sucos. O objetivo deste trabalho foi verificar a presença de amoreiras-brancas (Rubus spp.) no Planalto Sul Catarinense, caracterizar o hábitat e sistematizar o etnoconhecimento. O estudo foi realizado nos municípios de Cerro Negro, Campo Belo do Sul, Painel, Lages e São Joaquim. Foram realizadas 43 entrevistas com questionário semi-estruturado, levantando-se informações sobre o histórico, potencial de uso de amoreiras-brancas e procedimentos de manejo. Para caracterização do hábitat foi realizado levantamento assistemático em 51 pontos amostrados nos municípios visitados. Delimitou-se dois metros de raio da planta principal de amoreira-branca para caracterizar hábito de crescimento e espécies associadas. O etnoconhecimento associado às amoreiras-brancas demonstra serem os agricultores mantenedores.O uso mais frequente é na forma de frutos frescos e para chás de todas as partes. As amoreiras-brancas posicionam-se na parte externa de capões, capoeirinhas, florestas e são encontradas frequentemente em campos destinados ao pastoreio. Restabelecem-se, facilmente, em áreas antropizadas e devido a este fator, apresenta-se como espécie vegetal rústica com potencial de domesticação. Embora espécie seja negligenciada, a amoreira-branca pode se constituir numa alternativa de renda para pequenos agricultores residentes no Planalto Sul Catarinense, cultivando-a para a produção de frutos, como planta ornamental e/ou medicinal

Traditional image processing solutions have been applied in the past to detect and count strawberries. These methods typically involve feature extraction followed by object detection using one or more features. Some object detection problems can be ambiguous as to what features are relevant and the solutions to many problems are only fully realized when the modern approach has been applied and tested, such as deep learning. In this work, we investigate the use of R-CNN for green strawberry detection. The object detection involves finding regions of interest (ROIs) in field images using the selective segmentation algorithm and inputting these regions into a pre-trained deep neural network (DNN) model. The convolutional neural networks VGG, MobileNet and ResNet were implemented to detect subtle differences between green strawberries and various background elements. Downscaling factors, intersection over union (IOU) thresholds and non-maxima suppression (NMS) values can be tweaked to increase recall and reduce false positives while data augmentation and negative hardminging can be used to increase the amount of input data. The state of the art model is sufficient in locating the green strawberries with an overall model accuracy of 74%. The R-CNN model can then be used for crop yield prediction to forecast the actual red strawberry count one week in advance with a 90% accuracy.