Meeting Vinelink International

Paris, november 22th, 2002
 
PRECISION VITICULTURE
ADVANCED EQUIPMENTS AND SOFTWARES


THE TECHNOLOGICAL ANSWERS BY COMPANIES
AND PUBLIC RESEARCH IN THE WORLD.

Francis SEVILA, ENSAM Montpellier
sevila@ensam.inra.fr

We should think over the debate on the application of new information technologies to the wine business : actually we find in many countries an important gap ,in terms of control and use of these technics , between the wine producer and the final marketer.This situation is paradoxal since most information technics are more adapted to the use by the grapegrower .
We propose to think it over through 3 themes : the actual access of grapegrowers , the evolution of internet services ,the development of intranet systems.

1.The access of grapegrowers , and more generaly speaking of farmers , to modern information networks is poor in many countries where most of the network development is concentrated on the urban territories .The « digital gap » between towns and country should be adressed urgently.

2.The evolution of internet services has followed 3 generation steps :
*first step :static services : offers of products , informations and advises .Short value for the user
*2nd step : interactive services allow to help selling or to be connected with other growers : this step brings mainly a qualitative gain to the user.
*the 3rd generation of services improve this qualitative aspect by deepening the use of interactive communications : the new sites look more like consortium gathering many actors of the same chain at different levels .
Actually the major motor of the new technologies evolution is the obligation of « traceabilility » (or winemaking recalling) compelling every actor , upward or downward , to be connected to its business chain . Moreover this obligation imposes to the grapegrower to organise his intern system of information ,object of the intranet .

3.Building the intranet in every winery is a very urgent and important task : the possibility of gathering and offering reliable and regular data on the inputs and the technics of production is an imperative need .
The New Technics of Information and Communication (NTICs) are giving access to a new ability improving altogether the technical and commercial efficiency of the grapegrower : for instance they allow to negociate and trade on internet ,and at the same time to record, map , calculate production parameters on intranet .
The choice of NTICs is altogether economic and qualitative, they become an obligatory investment for the grapegrower.

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