In the European Union, one of the most severe challenges within the agriculture sector is the cost and scarcity of labor. In fact, throughout the pandemic, growers across the region have been either complaining about higher labor costs, or limited access to it altogether. Therefore, to protect the food supply chains in Europe, a new EU project is accelerating the shift to robotics and automation which would fundamentally shake up the agrifood landscape in Europe.
To put it simply, the Robs4Crops project aims to accelerate the shift toward large-scale implementation of robotics and automation in European farming. With a €7.9 million budget co-funded by the EU, Robs4Crops said in a statement that it will demonstrate that robotics and related technologies can bring precision and consistent repeatability to a series of mundane, repetitive tasks, thus reducing the need for humans to engage in work that is unpleasant, laborious, and requires minimal-to-zero thinking.
“Growers across Europe are reporting limited access to labor. Fields of fruits and vegetables have been left unharvested as thousands of seasonal workers have been unable to reach farms that rely on their work while the virus has struck down others,” the Robs4Crops statement reads. The pandemic has led to a spike in both interest and investment in robotics and farm automation technologies, marking the start of a structural change in food and farming.
https://techhq.com/2022/05/eu-project-is-helping-farmers-fight-labor-shortage-with-robotics/https://techhq.com/2022/05/eu-project-is-helping-farmers-fight-labor-shortage-with-robotics/