FTEK AUTOMATION PROJECT UPDATE Dinah Cohen : TomatoesNZ business manager Please circulate these among your employees so they can refer to them. They can be found under ’Biosecurity’ and ’Exotic Pest Fact Sheets’ on the TNZ website. www.tomatoesnz.co.nz/biosecurity/exotic-pests-factsheets-2/
PepMV Testing kits You will soon receive a free testing kit with everything you need to send samples to a lab of the tomato plants you will be removing at the end of the growing season, to test for the presence of pepino mosaic virus. As you’re aware, PepMV has been detected in a small number of plants over the past 14 months. The testing of samples from all tomato growers will help us confirm whether the virus has or has not spread beyond the few growers that we are already aware of. A sneak peek of FTEK’s tomato crop task attachment, scheduled for pilot field trials later this year
FTEK is nearing completion of the first stage of research and development in a three-stage labour saving automation programme, backed by growers and industry groups within the New Zealand greenhouse industry. The company plans to showcase the working prototype of what they now refer to as a “robotic labour assist platform (RLAP)“ at the 18 May TomatoesNZ (TNZ) workshop in Pukekohe. The robotic platform combines clever hardware and software with a key focus on modular tasking capability.
Biosecurity update You might have noticed that we have updated the biosecurity posters on our website.
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This testing should play a significant assurance role in the export markets that haven’t already reopened, most importantly Australia. Please send in your samples and if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email Dinah.cohen@hortnz.co.nz
The robotic platform combines clever hardware and software with a key focus on modular tasking capability Biopesticides A Lighter Touch, in which TNZ is a programme participant, has produced a grower resource on the management of biopesticides by growers. If you would like a copy of this, please email Dinah.cohen@hortnz.co.nz. As the name suggests, biopesticides derive from naturally occurring compounds and are best used in an integrated pest management (IPM) approach, alongside synthetic agrichemicals.
