March 2021 - 28

LABOR
The tool is designed to mimic human hands and fingers as it picks strawberries.
Photo: Shinsuke Agehara
Drip irrigation system projected to conserve water, improve soil temperature and extend
growing seasons for North Dakota fruit and vegetable production. Photo: Xinhua Jia
Specialty Crop Block Grant Program boosts automation
By Jillian Kaplan
USDA Agricultural Marketing Service
U.S. specialty crop producers face
a variety of challenges that require a
diverse set of solutions. From labor
shortages and rising production
costs that threatened the health of
Florida's strawberry industry to water
supply challenges that stymied North
Dakota's vegetable yields, the Specialty
Crop Block Grant Program (SCBGP)
has helped producers bring to life
innovative ideas in automation.
USDA's Agricultural Marketing
Service provides annual SCBGP funding
to State Departments of Agriculture
for projects that support specialty crop
growers, producers and consumers.
The projects can range from outreach
and education, training, marketing or
research to enhance the specialty crop
industry. Each state determines priorities
that will be most impactful to the issues
they are facing.
In the case of addressing labor
shortfalls in strawberry harvesting, the
Florida Department of Agriculture and
Consumer Services awarded funding
to the University of Central Florida
to develop a project that is currently
engineering a mechanical arm. This
gripper will mimic human hands and
fingers as it picks strawberries - without
damaging the fruit. The technology aims
to be universal for different strawberry
varieties. The project will also evaluate the
economic impact of the gripper creation.
To date, the project team finalized
their design and manufactured two
prototypes. Both prototypes have gone
through laboratory and field tests, and
one has been integrated with a robotic
arm-like platform for harvesting. The
team will measure project success by the
number of strawberry varieties to which
the picking mechanism can be applied
and the number of harvesting platforms
that decide to adopt the technology.
In North Dakota, the State
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Department of Agriculture distributed
SCBGP funds to North Dakota State
University to tackle water management
issues. The project's goal is to improve
fruit and vegetable yields by creating
a drip irrigation system that can
be automatically controlled by soil
moisture sensors. The project involves
conducting experiments to see how
different mulch types and amounts
impact weed control with the system.
They will then educate local growers on
the new drip irrigation technology.
To date, the team has designed, built
and implemented the drip irrigation
system and conducted comparisons
on tomato and watermelon yield and
quality. With its projected ability
to conserve water, improve soil
temperature and extend growing
seasons, the team sees this system as the
future of North Dakota specialty crops.
Automated production methods
have been a common thread in
multiple SCBGP projects. According
to the recent USDA Economic
Research Service report, Developing
Automation and Mechanization for
Specialty Crops: A Review of U.S.
Department of Agriculture Programs,
$12.5 million in funding on automation
and mechanization projects has been
distributed in the SCBGP between
FY 2008-2018. As states and growers
identify specific needs in the specialty
crop industry, SCBGP welcomes
innovative ideas to help the industries
evolve and adapt.
For more information on the SCBGP
and previously awarded projects, please
visit the SCBGP program website. To
learn more about USDA investments in
innovation technologies, visit the USDA
Science Blueprint and Agricultural
Innovation Agenda.
Automated production
methods have
been a common
thread in multiple
SCBGP projects.
Principal investigators for the
projects highlighted in this article:
Mechanical Strawberry Harvester
Project [Yunjun Xu, University of
Central Florida (Yunjun.Xu@ucf.
edu), Shinsuke Agehara, Gulf Coast
Research and Education Center,
University of Florida (sagehara@
ufl.edu), Zhengfei Guan, Gulf Coast
Research and Education Center,
University of Florida (guanz@ufl.edu)].
Drip Irrigation System Project [Xinhua
Jia, Department of Agricultural and
Biosystems Engineering, North Dakota
State University (xinhua.jia@ndsu.edu),
Chiwon Lee, Department of Plant
Sciences, North Dakota State University
(Chiwon.Lee@ndsu.edu), Thomas
Scherer, Department of Agricultural
and Biosystems Engineering, North
Dakota State University (thomas.
scherer@ndsu.edu)].
Deanna Gierszewski, North Dakota
Department of Agriculture, and Josh Johnson,
Florida Department of Agriculture and
Consumer Services, also contributed to
this article. FGN
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March 2021

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