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WiseYield models real farms as a four-level hierarchy. Each level corresponds to a different physical or economic invariant, and every operational endpoint attaches at the level it semantically belongs to — not “as deep as possible.”

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The four levels

The UX uses “Tree” for orchards and “Plant” for non-tree crops; the schema name is block_plants in both cases.

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Why four levels

  • A field is the smallest unit at which infrastructure is uniform — one pump, one solenoid, one drip line, one boundary fence.
  • A block is the smallest unit at which biology and management decisions are uniform — same variety, same age, same fertigation program.
  • A tree is the smallest unit at which economics are uniform — perennials worth €200–€2,000 each justify per-asset tracking; row-crop seedlings don’t.
These are three different physical/economic invariants. Collapsing them produces wrong decisions: a single field-wide fertigation dose across heterogeneous soils either over-flushes the upslope (waste) or under-flushes the downslope (yield loss).

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When to use each level

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Field-level only is sufficient when

  • Annual row crops with uniform variety across the field (wheat, corn, soy, cotton).
  • Leafy greens and vegetables on irrigation-uniform beds.
  • Smallholder farms where the field is the smallest practical decision unit.

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Use blocks when

  • A field holds multiple varieties (e.g., Medjool + Barhi + Khalas date palms).
  • Different planting dates or age cohorts in one field.
  • Soil or salinity variability inside a field exceeds ±15%.
  • Intercropping, alley cropping, or strip cropping — each strip is a block.
  • Different fertigation programs even with the same variety.

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Use per-tree tracking when

  • High-value perennials: date palms, avocado, mango, premium olive, citrus on rootstock blocks.
  • Pollination tracking (date palm — one male tree services 40–50 females).
  • Disease quarantine (red palm weevil, citrus greening — individual-tree decisions).
  • Insurance or asset registers demand per-tree audits.
  • GAP-certified export operations where traceability per tree drives price premium.
Rule of thumb — per-tree tracking is justified when (asset value × loss probability) > (tracking cost per tree per year, ≈ €0.10 with QR + mobile).

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The Operations Attachment Principle

Every operational record attaches at the level that owns it physically or biologically: Endpoints accept and require farmId, fieldId, blockId, or cropId according to this principle. Passing an attachment at the wrong level returns 400 VALIDATION_ERROR.

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”Zone” is reserved

WiseYield deliberately does not use “Zone” for the block layer. “Zone” has reserved meanings in agriculture:
  • Irrigation zone — a hydraulic control unit.
  • Management zone — a precision-ag / VRT prescription region (NDVI, EC, yield zones).
  • Climatic zone — USDA Plant Hardiness Zone, agro-ecological zone.
When WiseYield ships variable-rate technology (VRT) and prescription maps, the prescription regions will be called Zones — distinct from Blocks. This separation is intentional.

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The principle in one line

Field is the unit of infrastructure. Block is the unit of agronomy. Tree/Plant is the unit of asset value. Manage at the level where variability lives — never higher.

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See also

  • Trust badges — how recommendations are scoped to the level whose data backs them
  • Error reference — codes returned when attachment level is invalid