What is the main role of AFA in FEROX?

AFA has two important roles in FEROX. First, AFA’s task is to organize several field campaigns in Finland. During the field campaigns, data on wild berries have been (and will be) collected. In addition, FEROX solutions will be tested in the field and, for this purpose, a number of berry pickers is needed. AFA’s task is to find pickers for these tests. Second, AFA has a significant role in dissemination activities.

How does your expertise contribute to the overarching goals of the FEROX project?

As stated above, AFA organizes the field campaigns in Finland and contact berry pickers. Thus, AFA is a link to Finland. AFA’s wide networks are useful when 1) searching for participants and users for Ferox purposes and 2) informing about FEROX project and its solutions. Also, AFA’s expertise on wild berries and Finnish wild berry sector is essential for other partners and can be utilized, for example, when preparing articles and other dissemination material.

How will the introduction of FEROX solutions impact the daily operations of berry pickers?

If FEROX manages to create a smartphone app that predicts the crop locations and quantity of different wild berry species, it would make the picking operations more effective. In addition, the physical support provided by heavyweight drones would be significant for those commercial pickers who collect huge amounts of wild berries. However, the key question regarding FEROX solutions is whether the price will be reasonable for potential users.