There’s been a longstanding argument within the sustainable agriculture community about whether or not organic agriculture is actually more resource-intensive than conventional agriculture. Although it is indelibly less toxic, without the use of herbicides for weed control, Organic farms (and bio intensive farms like us) are forced to either use lots of labor to hoe and hand weed (expensive), Use tractors to cultivate the soil frequently (fuel and labor-intensive) or you can grow on black plastic mulch (plastic/fuel intensive). [If you want to read our in-depth blog article about plastic in Organic farming LINK HERE]
I’ve approached this conundrum at VRDNT by judiciously using the most effective strategies and tools, from hand weeding/hoeing and using the tractor to cultivate. We’ve done okay and have succeeded without using single-use black plastic mulch, but there hasn't really been a tool that I've seen as “game-changing” until now...
We are integrating a farming robot into our team this Fall!
Meet Amiga, from Farm_ng. Yes, this is the risk I so cryptically alluded to in the subject. It's risky because it's new, and I'm not 100% sure what I’m doing yet…. Despite the learning curve that will need to be summited, I’m convinced this is the future of small-scale agriculture. Right now, Amiga is a paradigm-changing tool that could help us address the conundrum of weed pressure on the farm; but I can already see that this is the first of many possible (and barely imagined) applications.
OK, so before I get too into the lofty details; the first question I am usually asked is. What does it do, exactly? One of the things I LOVE about this robot is the fact that it is extremely customizable and runs on an open source (python) program. Farm_ng hosts a competition with the UC ag schools annually for students to customize the robot for a new applications. I met farm_ng at a farming conference and just immediately saw the potential.
Amiga is basically a small electric tractor that can precisely and autonomously move around the farm. The units are customizable, but mine is a little moon rover-like base, with an electric three-point hitch (attachment for tractor tools), cameras, and precise RTK GPS.
There are so many ways to apply these tools together, but the first and most exciting application is to automate weed cultivation (hoeing), allowing fewer emissions and labor to grow our veggies. The idea is to train a route while seeding a new bed, then we can remove the seeder (seen on the first photo) and add a toolbar with staggered cultivators. Since we have trained the route with the seeds when they are planted, every subsequent time the robot preforms that route, it can cultivate our new crops, precisely.
In this way, I see a future where Organic food could become cheaper and less resource intensive by relying on robotic weed cultivation. There are already many highly specialized GPS tractors and autonomous weeders using AI computer vision. So far, all of these technologies are not price or scale appropriate for small farms. I am happy to be working with Farm_ng who is designing tools accessible for small scale farms. As overwhelming or uncertain as all this new technology seems, I am certain that the intersection of AI, robotics, biotechnology and rural internet access is going to revolutionize the way we grow food in the next decade. I want to be a part of the conversation and help ensure that small & family farmers can leverage these new technologies to stay competitive with big ag.
We will keep you posted on how our roll-out with Amiga goes this fall. Questions? E-mail me and I will do my best answer all your curiosities in another blog soon!
optimistically your farmer,
Becky
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