![]() ![]() “We’re losing the bees on the planet, about 35% of the bee colonies every year,” said Saar Safra, CEO and cofounder of Beewise, which has raised $120 million to build robotic hives that grow bees in a safe, climate-controlled environment. The problem of colony collapse disorder, where worker bees abandon their hive and queen, is linked to harm from pesticides, loss of habitat, threats from other species and poor nutrition, according to the U.S. The dwindling bee population essential for pollination is becoming an even more fundamental crisis, especially for California’s fruit and nut farms. Human labor isn’t the only shortage for farmers. It’s also not intended to replace human labor, but “fills in when a grower doesn’t have enough workers on a certain day or when two different plots are ripe for picking, and he doesn’t have enough people working at night or working overtime,” he said. The speed isn’t remarkable, but the system is designed to be precise and work round the clock, in light or darkness, something humans can’t do. In a demonstration at the expo, the company’s “Alpha-Bot” system of eight autonomous flying robots tethered to an automated conveyor picked and deposited one piece of fruit (including apples, peaches, plums, apricots and nectarines) every 2.5 seconds. operations in the San Joaquin Valley, offers small flying, autonomous robots equipped with camera vision and algorithms to identify ripe fruit, pick it with a high-suction arm and gently deposit it into a conveyor. The Israeli startup, which recently opened U.S. While Monarch and other makers of robotic tractors, including industry heavyweight John Deere, are focused on crop maintenance and monitoring, Tevel Aerobotics Technologies is using autonomous technology to help with the harvest. ![]() It’s licensed the technology to CNH and has a deal with Foxconn to rapidly boost production of MK-Vs at its Lordstown, Ohio, plant. ![]() Its cameras and software allow for precise watering and use of fertilizers and pesticides, resulting in further cost savings for growers, he said.īacked by $110 million in funding from farm equipment maker CNH Industrial and VCs, including Trimble Ventures, At One Ventures, Tri-Valley Ventures and Western Technology Investment, the company is also moving fast to get them into widespread use. Penmetsa says savings on fuel and labor mean it pays for itself in about two years-and in California, it even qualifies for incentives for nonpolluting ag equipment of as much as 80%. Monarch’s tractor, which has been working in Mondavi-owned vineyards since 2020, costs about twice as much as a similar-size diesel tractor. “Now 2 or 3 people can do the work of 30.” “California is the world’s primary producer of almonds now, and it used to be if you’re growing almonds you needed a crew of, like, 30 people with long sticks and bags to walk through the orchard and knock the almonds off the trees and then pick them up off the ground now,” Little said. That’s also made them receptive to labor-saving technology, like the use of machines that shake almond and pistachio trees starting about 20 years ago. Bryan Little, director of labor affairs for the California Farm Bureau Federation. “Pretty much every year our members have been concerned about not being able to get enough people to do what they need to do or would like to be able to do,” said C. The problem is acute for California growers, who produce crops that are more labor-intense to harvest than the vast wheat and cornfields of the Midwest. “It was because every step of the supply chain lacked the labor needed to keep up with the demand.” “The lack of products on grocery store shelves was not because farmers stopped growing crops and raising livestock to provide a food source for the country,” the American Farm Bureau Federation said in a recent blog. Bryan Little, director of labor affairs, California Farm Bureau Federation “Pretty much every year our members have been concerned about not being able to get enough people to do what they need to do or would like to be able to do.”Ĭ. The problem was glaringly apparent at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, when ripe crops were left to fallow in the field because there weren’t enough workers to harvest them, triggering shortages of some products at supermarkets. But finding enough people to work the fields grows harder year after year, particularly with the drop in migrant farm labor resulting from stricter border controls. That’s far ahead of states synonymous with farming like Iowa and Nebraska. agricultural production by value, according to the USDA. California, led by its highly productive San Joaquin Valley farms, last year generated more than $51 billion of revenue from grapes, almonds, peaches, lettuce, carrots and other high-value crops, or 12% of total U.S. ![]()
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