The Future of Robots and Agri-tech
A recent article in the London Times highlighted the advances in agri-tech. With the industry facing difficult issues, including an ageing workforce, environmental regulations on pesticides and Covid-19, start-ups are seeking big yields from “agri-tech”. The burgeoning sector received an estimated $2.8 billion of investment worldwide last year.
Even the world’s largest tech giants are seeing an opportunity. This week Google announced the launch of a new agricultural unit called ‘Mineral‘ that includes self-driving robot buggies which monitor the health of individual plants.
Rpbot “Dick” zaps weeds with electricity, burning away the whole root (photo T Knowles)
“Farming is going to go through a revolution, for sure,” Fraser Black, chief executive of a British agri-tech centre, Crop Health and Protection, said. “We’re talking about Agriculture 4.0. You’ve still got the classic farming family for generations, but now you’re also getting new entrepreneurs coming in who are not farmers and know how to use the technology differently and the two are coming together.”
Read moreabout strawberries, drones and cows ……
