Reports this week have said that farmers are set to trial several new robot-based systems this season on farms producing strawberries, apples, blueberries, lettuce and broccoli.
FarmingUK said that the aim is for approved technologies to be manufactured at scale and fully implemented for the 2021 season.
The effort is being coordinated by the University of Lincoln, the National Farmers Union (NFU), Agri-EPI Centre, the Manufacturing Technology Centre, and the Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN), with the backing of more than 100 of the UK’s fresh food producers.
Both Covid-19 and Brexit are said to be affecting seasonal workers in the UK fresh produce sector this year, with 70,000 workers needed annually to pick these products. It is estimated that this year only 30% of migrant agricultural workers will come to the UK.
Professor Simon Pearson, Prof of Agri-Food Technology at University of Lincoln, is quoted as saying this could cause "severe problems" for numerous market sectors, such as fruit and vegetable picking.
“While approaches like ‘Pick for Britain’ seek to increase the availability of human labour, there is also an opportunity for the UK agri-food sector and technology providers to collaborate to accelerate the development and uptake of R&A technologies," Professor Person said.
"We have some very good R&A experts in the UK who have been looking at solutions for some time. We want to get these to industry in a very short space of time.”
Ali Capper, Chair of the NFU Horticulture and Potatoes Board was quoted by Stackyard, saying, “This is an excellent initiative and one that is long overdue. British fruit and veg growers have an on-going challenge around the availability, cost of and access to seasonal labour, exacerbated by Brexit and now COVID-19.
"This is a global challenge with many countries around the world facing seasonal labour difficulties. I commend the consortium for their energy in trying to accelerate the use of robotics in the fruit and veg sectors and look forward to being part of the team that brings new robotic solutions forward to British farmers and growers.”
The consortium is focusing on five areas for action:
- Driving collaboration across the robotic, engineering and farming communities.
- Securing appropriate investment to develop the Proof of Concepts to complete new robots.
- Enlisting industrial engineers from within and outside the agri-food sector to assist with Proof of Concept
- Testing new robots on volunteer farms.
- Recruiting industrial designers and manufacturers to produce approved R&A technologies.
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