PHOTO: HENK RISWICK
MIT has found that the internal communications within a plant can be monitored with cheap technology.
move autonomously, monitoring crops, detect- ing and treating diseases. SMASH is not a single machine, but rather a series of different devices including a robot with a robotic arm featuring manipulators and vision systems, a mobile base station, drones and field sensors that together provide farmers with vital information.
Robots take over work in orchards OCEANIA
New Zealand startup YieldTec intends to intro- duce robots capable of automating fruit pick- ing. As a result, growers should be able to end seasonal labour shortages and save up to 60% of their costs. The technology will automate harvest management and logistics. Pickers put the produce in smart fruit bags that send an au- tomated message to mobile bin robots when they are full. A mobile bin robot will automati- cally move to the location of the picker to col- lect the fruit and transport it to the preferred
destination for sorting or packing. This aspect of harvesting takes a lot of time and causes fa- tigue. When it’s automated, the pickers won’t have to do that much legwork, which will make them more productive. And the technology will be able to do yield mapping. That way the grower will know how much fruit every tree, block or orchard produces. The platform will also give growers a history of the performance of pickers and the farm as a whole, which will make it easier to plan for the next season.
The cooling effect of irrigation on crops
NORTH AMERICA A research team led by University of Illinois sci- entists discovered 16% of the yield increase from irrigation is attributable to cooling alone. The team analysed satellite-derived crop tem- perature and biomass data, irrigation maps, and county-level corn yield in Nebraska between 2003 and 2016. By comparing irrigated and
rainfed sites, they found irrigation increased yields by 81%, 16% of which was attributable to cooling and 84% to water supply. Irrigation cools crops through the combined effects of transpiration – water loss through tiny holes in leaves called stomata – and evaporation from soil. Transpiration can only occur when there is a sufficient misture in the soil; when roots sense dry soil, plants close their stomata to prevent water loss. When this happens for long enough, plants heat up and suffer drought stress, some- times leading to yield reductions. Irrigation also reduced July land surface temperatures by 1.63 degrees Celsius relative to rainfed sites.
▶ FUTURE FARMING | 22 May 2020 5
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