ABSTRACT
The global agriculture and food industry are facing four main challenges: increased global population, constrained natural resources, climate change reducing productivity, and food waste causing market inefficiency and environment threat. Digital agriculture system (DAS), which uses the...
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ABSTRACT
Smart Agriculture 4.0 Program of Taiwan targets three major fields, namely agriculture biotechnology, quality agriculture, and precision agriculture; precision agriculture is divided into two major categories: establishing foundations and promoting excellence. The current technical...
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Traditionally, agriculture is generally regarded as a high-risk industry because of its nature of being highly dependent on the climate and crop yields being easily influenced by adverse weather conditions (e.g., typhoons and rainstorms) and climate-associated damage (e.g., cold...
An apple orchard in Takayama, Japan recently used a robot to pollinate trees – pointing the way forward for the country’s agricultural industry that is currently facing labour shortage and the decline of bees.
The farm deployed a lightweight, unmanned ground vehicle produced by XAG, which has been helping the agricultural sector in various countries, such as Australia to modernise their practices by using drones to fertilise vast swathes of land.
The farm robot named XAG R150 was launched in Japan last month after a nationwide trial, including one conducted last April at Village Takayama, Nagano Prefecture of Japan, and watched by experts from Japan Agricultural Cooperatives.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan formulated the Basic Plan for Food, Agriculture, and Rural Areas in 2020 to achieve smart agriculture for the next 10 years. The government has charted the roadmap of adopting digital technologies, such as robots and artificial intelligence, to drive new growth in its agricultural economy.
According to the estimate of the Japanese government, the number of bee swarms in Japan has seen a 40% reduction over the past nine years. The absence of important insect pollinators could cast a massive fruit yield reduction and cause fatal blow on the annual revenue of fruit farmers.
The idea of applying ground robots for fruit tree pollination was a bold attempt to cope with the pollination crisis.
At the apple orchard in Takayama where the trial was conducted, the operator poured a special mixed solution of pollen into the liquid tank of XAG R150, which then started to move autonomously and spray liquid pollen on the Sun Fuji apples following the pre-settled route.
Read more here.