PHOTO: FRMWISE


PHOTO: UNIVERSITY OF CORDOBA


PHOTO: HANS PRINSEN PHOTO: MIT / MELANIE GONICK


EDITOR’S PICKS ▶▶▶


FarmWise and Roush to develop weeding robots


NORTH AMERICA


The initial contract between FarmWise, builder of adaptive robots for agriculture, and Roush, a full-service product development supplier headquartered in Livonia, Michigan, includes the development of a dozen of prototypes of the self-driving robots in 2019, with scaling to additional units in 2020. The autonomous farming robots are to provide high-precision weeding and thinning with the ability to re- place herbicides, save cost on labor and in- crease yield. They will also work reliably around the clock, 24/7, and adapt seamlessly to different crops. Thomas Palomares of Silicon Valley-based startup FarmWise said his company chose Roush to develop its autonomous robots be- cause “Michigan is well-known for its manufac- turing and automotive industries, the ad- vanced technology expertise and state-of-the- art manufacturing practices. These are many of the key ingredients we need to manufacture and test our machines. As a technology start- up, joining forces (…) is critical to support the scale of our manufacturing plan.”


African farmers use fertiliser app


AFRICA


The Fertiliser Optimiser phone app allows farmers in Africa to dramatically increase yields. Pilot work on the Cabi app in Uganda has shown that some farmers realised up to a sevenfold increase. Funded by the BBSRC Global Challenges Research Fund, the app has


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now been upgraded to make it easier to use. It includes the Integrated Soil Fertility Manage- ment practices feature, and a calibration tool which helps farmers to apply the right quanti- ty of fertiliser to their crops. Cabi (Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience In- ternational) is now rolling out a training pro- gramme for additional extension workers on the use of the Fertiliser Optimisation Tools, with a target of reaching up to 1,600 more farmers in Uganda. Across Africa, over 3,000 extension workers have already been empow- ered to use the tools to advise farmers on how to maximise their profits from investments in fertilisers. There are over 50 million families liv- ing in the rural areas of the 13 countries where Cabi has been exploring how to optimise fertiliser investment.


them to gather data in regions of the electro- magnetic spectrum different from visible light, obtaining information that the human eye cannot detect. They confirmed that the wild oats grew in patches, which means that they are good can- didates for the localised use of weedkillers. The key lies in applying herbicide selectively to portions of the plot where, even if the weed cannot be seen yet, there is a high likelihood that they could appear in the future.


Robots become main


workforce on farms EUROPE


Predicting wheat


weed growth EUROPE


Spanish researchers performed a study that predicts the growth of wild oats among wheat crops, with an aim to optimise the use of her- bicides. Wild oats are a kind of grass weed and they compete with the crops by taking their water, light and nutrients. The AGR124 re- search group used precision agriculture tech- nologies, such as sensors, drones and GPS navigators to apply only the necessary re- sources at the right time, thus avoiding un- necessary high costs and environmental dam- age. Multispectral satellite images allowed


▶ FUTURE FARMING | 24 May 2019


In 10 to 20 years from now, robots will do all the repetitive work in the agricultural sector, says Erik Pekkeriet of Wageningen University & Research. In his weblog he argues that due to mechanisation, agricultural work has become more monotonous and difficult, and there is no time anymore to have a chat. Often also working conditions are not very comfortable in humidity greenhouses, the burning sun of freezing cold rooms. That’s why it becomes more difficult to find workers – even the Polish are turning their backs on the Dutch agricul- tural sector. To that one can add the ageing farmers population in general. The answer according to WUR: robots. Roughly 60 researchers are involved in the develop- ment of robots that can perform agricultural work such as weeding, harvesting, and pack- ing. Autodidactic systems, spectral camera technologies and robot hands are also being developed. “They work 24/7, so it is not a problem if they work a bit slower than people.”


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