November 2022 - 6

Small organic growers give input on ag tech
By Gary Pullano
VGN Senior Correspondent
Specialty crop growers and their tools
are usually inseparable. But is that the
case for small organic vegetable growers
and compact agricultural robots?
A pair of Michigan State University
(MSU) associates sought an answer to
that question by interviewing growers
primarily from Michigan (along with one
from Ohio and another from Maryland)
to determine their perceptions and
attitudes about agricultural robots. They
conducted 14 interviews during the
winter and spring with small organic
vegetable growers, with some cut flower
growers also included.
Doug Bessette, an assistant professor
in MSU's Department of Community
Sustainability, reported on the
questionnaire findings at the Mechanical
Weed Control Field Day in midSeptember
in Benton Harbor, Michigan.
Bessette partnered with Dan Brainard,
MSU professor in the Department of
Agriculture, who works closely with
Michigan vegetable growers.
The upshot of the sessions were that
growers reported a lack of knowledge
and experience with agbots. Most of the
growers were only mildly to moderately
interested in their emergence as a tool
for the agricultural industry. Many
of the respondents exhibited serious
concerns about what the widespread
use of agricultural robots would mean
for farmers.
There are concerns regarding how
agbots might affect their daily tasks and
their identity, organic farms' customers,
and the long-term health and viability of
food production more generally.
However, concerns about the
availability and quality of labor also
made the idea of using robotics and
mechanizing aspects of the vegetable
farm attractive.
" Most of the growers didn't have any
particular experience with this robot or
robots in general, " Bessette told the field
day audience. " These are representative
results, so I'm not saying this is how all
growers feel. We're going to do a survey
eventually, but this was just an interview
with 14 organic growers. Most of them
were mildly to moderately interested in
the technology.
" Many of them had concerns about
what greater mechanization of farming
might look like and what impact that
might be to their identity as farmers, "
he said.
The interview subjects were small
operators with an average of 17 acres,
but most had 2-10 acres of vegetables,
either certified by the U.S. Department
of Agriculture or using organic farming
practices, even if they weren't certified.
" There were two intentions with this
survey, " Bessette said. " First, to show
them an agricultural robot and see
what their perceptions were to kind
of adopting that kind of technology,
and then change that robot to see what
aspects of that robot they were most
excited about. "
6 | VegetableGrowersNews.com
Naio Oz agbot. Photo: Naio Technologies
A large portion of the growers were
asked about the Naio Oz, a compact
robot for small farms.
" Most of them didn't know about it
so they didn't have any preconceived
perceptions of that robot, " he said.
" That's why we thought it was OK to use
that type of robot as a prototype. "
The surveyors described the machine
as a small and simple agbot that operates
autonomously to
plant perfectly
straight rows
within one or
two centimeters
of specifications.
It can then track
those rows to
manage weeds
between and near
the crop row.
It can operate
autonomously
for six to 10 hours before needing a
recharge. The Naio Oz has a maximum
speed of 1.1 mph, with an estimated
three to four minutes to plant or weed
DOUG
BESSETTE
300 feet of row crops..
" Our first intention was to find out
how growers responded to that. For
the most part we found there was
some willingness, " Bessette said. " They
weren't beating down the doors to go
buy one but they were interested in it.
We asked what they would be willing
to pay for this. The answers were
somewhat abstract and we couldn't draw
conclusions from that. "
He said the majority of growers
compared the agbot cost to how much
labor they could replace with it, " so it
depended on what they were paying
for that. "
" We changed individual aspects of
the robot, " he said. " We said the original
robot didn't do within-row weeding, and
then said what if we change it so that
it did. We found a lot of growers were
interested in that but they wanted closer
precision so we said what if it could do
in-row weeding of six inches or more. "
Bessette said " a lot of them " wanted
greater precision of three to four inches.
" We asked, 'what if we make it
go faster?' Most farmers weren't
interested for more speed. They were
asked if they'd pay a little bit more
but for the most part they thought
one mile an hour was fast enough for
these small growers. "
A scenario of the agbot returning
autonomously to fixed points on the
farm for transporting tools, produce
or equipment, " really excited " the
respondents.
" They kind of imagined robots doing
things on the farm without having to
pay attention, " Bessette said.
Growers were asked about potential
data collection, such as the agbot
gathering data about soil moisture,
pests or plant health. Their excitement
about receiving the information came
with concerns about data security.
" Where's the data going to, the quality
of that data and what's the usability
of that data? " he said. " Is it data that
they're actually going to use? Many of
them were already collecting data and
wondered if they would have to check
the robot's data with their own data
afterward. There was some concern
about that.
" We asked about continuous
operation, such as what if it could
operate continuously for 12 hours
and return to a charging station
autonomously to charge? " Bessette said.
" So, it would be like set it and forget it.
It's doing its thing on the farm and (the
grower) is not necessarily having to
monitor it. People were pretty excited
about that and would be willing to pay
a little bit more for a robot that could
do that. "
One question focused on the agbot
potentially spanning multiple rows with
high clearance. A majority of growers
were interested in that. Some of them
said they would rather have better
precision within row weeding over a
larger span of rows.
" We asked, 'what if it had an onboard
solar panel so it literally could be
forgotten about?' It's out there in the field
and as long as it's sunny it has power and
it can do its own thing, " he said. " Some
of the growers were interested but most
of them said solar access probably would
be unnecessary. "
Respondents were worried about
how their customers perceive these
technologies.
" One grower imagined the situation
where they're customer is driving past
and sees a robot out on the farm. They
didn't know how that would affect their
customer base. Would it make their
customers concerned or would they be
excited about that?
The organic growers had concerns
about viability of health and long-term
food production, Bessette said: Who
is passing this knowledge on to their
children or future farmers?
" There was concern that if everything
is mechanized, who retains that
knowledge and passes it onto the next
generation of farmers? "
Despite the reservations, the
questioners observed there also was
abundant concern regarding the
availability and cost of agricultural
workers.
" A lot of these growers are in areas
where it's very difficult to get good labor
or to have people come back to the farm
every season, " Bessette said. " Some of
them are really struggling to find that
labor, so they were really excited about
the opportunity to have robots on the
farm that might reduce their labor costs
or reduce the headaches of trying to
find this labor. " VGN
http://www.VegetableGrowersNews.com
November 2022

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