1 minute read
In Brief
from Ipoma 02
16
In Conversation ipoma
High-tech Jobs & Robot Arms
Ines Hanrahan, director of the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission, sees harvest automation as a major opportunity for farmers – as well as a recipe against labor shortages and high costs.
Ines Hanrahan heads the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission (WTFRC), funded by the growers themselves (1+3). She herself has experienced the labor shortage (2) on the commercial fruit orchard she runs with her family.
01 Will robotic harvesting herald the future of the apple industry over the next few years?
Yes – in fact, this route has already been mapped out for some time. Fruit growers here in Washington State were pushing for research programs on automation as much as fifty years ago. For years, breeders have only been developing varieties that are suitable for robotic harvesting, with uniformly ripening fruits that only need one picking, are not prone to bruising, and are easily recognizable on the tree due to their coloring. All new plantings have been converted to higher-yielding V systems or 2-D fruit walls. Robotic arms cope best with the latter.
02 Are robots a solution to the global labor shortage in agriculture?
Yes, if you consider that harvesting accounts for up to 60 percent of the cost of an orchard operation. Migrant workers are a bigger financial burden for small farms these days, and robots can absorb workload peaks during the harvest period. Plus, today’s young people aren’t interested in jobs in the agricultural sector but in technology and sustainability. In the future, fruit growing can be a high-tech job: data-driven and environmentally sound.
03 Which of the robotic systems currently being tested as prototypes is the most promising?
The cameras that recognize the fruits all work equally well. The problem is the robotic arms, which are complicated and expensive. Luckily, there are several competing approaches: competition is good for innovation. The system most likely to prevail will be the one that offers farmers the best local service, works reliably for days on end – and gets the apples into the crate without squashing them.
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