Over 230 agriculturist at AHDB ’s SmartHort 2019 group discussion , which took place on 6 and 7 March , listen the sector require a clean-cut vision to push investing in enceinte - shell projects to quicken innovation .
Delegates at the two - day event in Stratford - upon - Avon heard updates from expert around the Earth on a stove of exciting raw technology , from automatonlike reaper and automation systems to novel craw protection techniques .
Jane King , CEO , AHDB , talk at SmartHort 2019 , said : “ It is often say that we are on the edge of an agricultural and horticultural revolution . We ’re for sure on the cusp of significant modification . And it ’s going to require quislingism across industry . We postulate to be much more adaptable , inventive and operate with more lucidity and receptivity . ”
To help bring new ideas to the industry , AHDB launch the SmartHort Automation Challenge at the conference . The project will pair mechanization arrangement experts WMG , at the University of Warwick , with a UK business to develop an enforce answer to a genuine problem in horticultural production .
Simon Pearson , professor of agri - food technology research , University of Lincoln , said : “ We want big meaningful projects or ‘ moonshot ’ glide path . We demand the industry to come together and tell us what the big challenge are . Then we need to aggregate and pool all our resources together , in a few targeted areas , where we can really move the telephone dial to open up new technologies . ”
Simon Pearson , presenting at AHDB ’s SmartHort 2019 Conference
cultivator were recommend to speak with technology and robotics specialists to share their problems and put across the challenges they look that could be addressed with technology . Seeking solutions should also not be will only to the large players in the industry , particularly as the engineering science is becoming more approachable .
Alistair Frew , operations manager for Cheviot Trees , found in the Scottish borders , pronounce : “ The big take aside for me is to be working with fellow raiser to look at suitable technologies and the central penury that we all have . We want to see if we can pull something together , it ’s a big mathematical process . ”
Fumiya Iiada , reader in robotics at University of Cambridge , aver : “ Agri - food automatonlike revolution is happening right now . The rise of the robots is pass because they are get cheaper , easier and faster . This is exactly what happened with computing equipment 30 years ago . They were very expensive and only for big businesses but finally reached smaller businesses and then consumers . ”
Panel discussion with Simon Pearson - University of Lincoln , Jacob Kirwan - G ’s , Ali Capper - NFU , Hayley Campbell - Gibbons - AHDB
software for the SmartHort Automation Challenge are overt until 29 March . Apply atahdb.org.uk/smarthort
All the talks from the SmartHort 2019 conference can be watch again onahdb.org.uk/smarthort .
AHDB ’s SmartHort campaign is design to help improve labour efficiency in gardening through robotics and mechanization , as well as labor management technique .
