Unraveling the Potential of AI Towards Digital and Green Transformation in Kiwifruit Farming

Growing awareness of the population of health benefits related to kiwifruit consumption, led to its increased market demand. As demands grow, producers need efficient and sustainable practices to provide enhanced outputs, in terms of yield quality and quantity, by optimally managing their inputs, in terms of resources. To achieve the latter goals, digitalization and precision operations of farming practices introduced Precision Agriculture (PA). PA have harnessed the potential of technological improvements to revolutionize kiwifruit industry. To this end, in this work, a narrative review is conducted to gather information and add to existing research on PA of kiwifruit. Research findings are analyzed and interpreted towards allowing readers to capture the broad range of current status and perspective of AI in kiwifruit farming. Results indicate a lack of public datasets, and limited multi-modal data fusion techniques; AI-based robotic automation for harvesting and pollination is reported, while automation for weeding, pruning and spraying has not yet been developed, leaving space for more innovations towards the overall digital and green transformation of the kiwifruit industry.