# Management Information Systems for Tree Fruit--1: A Review
## 4 Commercial Practice
### Commercial Orchard MIS  
The first generation of computer-based MISs used on farms involved the keeping of records for regulatory purposes, e.g., chemical usage, with later generations of products providing decision support functions [107]. [PERSON] et al. [47] categorised seven aspects of electronic MISs in Brazilian citrus production planning: (i) cost control spreadsheets; (ii) input stock records; (iii) records of production, productivity, and the incidence of pests per plot of land; (iv) use of integrated decision support systems; (v) online access of market information; (vi) adoption of precision agriculture techniques; and (vii) traceability and quality certifications. Many research studies employ commercially available tools/sensors that are also in commercial use in farm management systems, e.g., the use of a commercially available orchard imaging system in research on harvest timing decisions [108]. However, academic papers rarely report the use of a commercial orchard MIS, with a few exceptions involving MISs in pest, disease, and irrigation management. This situation is expected to change as orchard MISs become more prevalent. Academic reports generally involve the development of a tool for the management of a specific farm issue, with 45 of the reviewed papers giving a name to the developed tool (Table 8). Some of these tools have been distributed for grower use, but most remain as a research tool for the support of the development of measurement instrumentation and management protocols. For example, [PERSON] et al. [109] developed an interactive economic decision support tool in a Microsoft ([PERSON], CA, USA) Excel environment for organic apple production. This tool facilitates the analysis of a breakeven point, sensitivity analysis and net present value estimates over the life of an orchard on 'what if scenarios' and the given inputs of costs, yield and price. These tools are potentially useful for integration into a broader orchard MIS. In the current era of open data and source code, to encourage further R&D and adoption, it is recommended that researchers make the software of such tools available through repositories such as GitHub or via a commercial release. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c l l l l} \hline \hline \# & **Study** & **Crop** & **Name** & **Description** \\ \hline
1 & [PERSON] et al. [72] & olive & CO\({}_{2}\) Mputoliv & Carbon emission \\
2 & [PERSON] et al. [64] & citrus & CAS & Disease management \\
3 & [PERSON] et al. [110] & apple & Firework & Disease management \\
4 & [PERSON] [111] & apple, pear & HortPlus MetWatch & Disease management \\
5 & Lighter [112] & orchard & Marylyt & Disease management \\
6 & [PERSON] et al. [113] & peach, orange & FrostPro & Environment monitoring \\
7 & [PERSON] et al. [114] & fruit & PRAPPIIS & Financial analysis \\
8 & [PERSON] et al. [115] & apple & Apple Key & Germplasm/cultivar/breeding \\
9 & [PERSON] et al. [116] & cherry & ISGOD & Germplasm/cultivar/breeding \\
10 & [PERSON] et al. [117] & mango & MangoBase & Germplasm/cultivar/breeding \\
11 & [PERSON] et al. [71] & mango & MiSNPDb & Germplasm/cultivar/breeding \\
12 & [PERSON] et al. [91] & pear & Pie-Landscape & Growth and planting \\
13 & [PERSON] [118] & cherry & Vcherry & Growth and planting \\
14 & [PERSON] et al. [42] & kiwi & Blueaf & Irrigation management \\
15 & [PERSON] et al. [87] & pear & CropSyst & Irrigation management \\
16 & [PERSON] et al. [82] & peach, olive & Hydro-Tech & Irrigation management \\
17 & [PERSON] et al. [77] & orange & Innova Riego & Irrigation management \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 8: Named software tools in reviewed papers and their intended management task. Commercially available orchard MISs are relatively new to the market compared to farm MISs for cropping and, thus, are at an early stage of developing market share. These products address the orchard activities of irrigation control, harvest labour management, chemical spray records and fertiliser use (Table 9).