“It’s really important that we don’t give the impression that adopting robotics and automation means that human labour isn’t still of critical important to the industry.” Coral Clark of the British Growers Association predicted that while some additional roles will be filled by the robots, soft fruit production is likely to be via a mix of human and automation in the longer term.
The COVID-19 crisis has shown the fragility of food supply chains and accelerated the labour challenges for the agricultural industry – generating a sense of urgency for new methods of automating agricultural processes.
“Meeting the world’s requirements for more food by 2050 is a daunting task given current weed control methods,” says Nikolaos Koukiasas of The University of Reading, who is discussing his work at REAP 2019.
Lincoln Agri-Robotics will be established as a major new research centre