Tatura SmartFarm’s Alessio Scalisi has been recognised for his work in horticulture research, independently testing cutting-edge technology before it hits the orchard.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
About six weeks ago, Agriculture Victoria researcher Alessio Scalisi received an unexpected phone call.
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A representative from Apple and Pear Australia Limited told him and his team had won the industry’s Research and Extension award for his work at the Tatura Smart Farm.
“I’m surprised and happy and grateful to the industry,” he said.
“I haven’t been around for that long, really.”
He started working with apples in 2020.
Before that, it was other horticultural crops, back in Italy, and in the early years after he arrived in Australia.
Alessio grew up in Sicily, something that still colours his experience of life in the Goulburn Valley.
The flat, landlocked country around Tatura is just about as far from the Mediterranean as you can get.
“I really still struggle with the lack of proximity to the sea,” he said, laughing a little.
He first came to Tatura as a visiting PhD student in 2017, drawn by the institute’s reputation in horticulture research.
He stayed nine months, travelling the country in spare moments, visiting Tasmania, the Sunshine Coast, the Flinders Ranges, before returning to Italy to finish his doctorate.
His mind was already made up.
“Even before I went back, I said I’d try and come back to Australia and find a way.”
He returned in 2019 and took what work he could, as a technical assistant in the orchard.
Alessio was drawn to the Goulburn Valley as a PhD student from Italy. He has since moved to Australia permanently and made it his home.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
A fixed research position followed, and with it, a place on the PIPS 4 Profit program, the apple and pear industry's main R&D vehicle, now in its fourth five-year iteration.
PIPS stands for Productivity, Irrigation, Pests, and Soils.
Alessio works on the apple productivity component, at the forefront where farming meets technology.
He uses sensors mounted on tree trunks to measure water stress, LiDAR systems scanning orchard canopies, and machine vision tools built around camera technology.
“I’ve always been a techie kind of person,” he said.
But the technology is only part of it.
What his team does, crucially, is validate.
They test off-the-shelf tools and work alongside developers to make sure what works in theory also works for a grower in the field.
“Something that works well doesn’t mean it works well for growers, you need to find the right purpose and right use for them.”
The independence matters too.
Growers trust the institute because it isn’t selling anything.
“We’re not a commercial company. It’s about whether something can actually help them or not.”
His team numbers around eight researchers and technicians, plus a shifting cast of PhD students from Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, India, and recently, a steady stream from Italian universities.
Alessio has become an unofficial bridge between Agriculture Victoria’s Tatura SmartFarm and Italian horticulture faculties.
He keeps a 1999 Camry on hand for visiting students to use.
He is generous about sharing the award.
“It is definitely a team thing,” he said.
There is one more thing that has kept Alessio in Tatura.
One of the researchers on the team is now his wife, and they have two children, aged three and nearly six.
The award ceremony is in Melbourne at the end of July.
Alessio has never attended the annual APAL forum before, there was always too much work to do.
This time, as a winner, he has a good reason to be there.
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