Posts Tagged: farm
Students design high-tech solutions through Farm Robotics Challenge
Award-winning teams announced at FIRA USA robotics conference
A robot that navigates and weeds row-crop fields – and its design team from Olin College of Engineering in Massachusetts – have garnered the grand prize in the second annual Farm Robotics Challenge. Five winning teams, representing various universities and colleges across the U.S., were announced on Oct. 24 during a ceremony at the FIRA USA robotics conference in Woodland (watch recording).
A total of nine teams competed in the Farm Robotics Challenge, organized by University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources and the AI Institute for Next Generation Food Systems (AIFS), with support from technology partner farm-ng.
During the yearlong contest, the students engaged with growers about their pain points and challenges and then developed creative solutions using the farm-ng Amiga robot platform.
“It's inspiring to see the creativity and dedication of these students, who put in a lot of hard work and long hours to pull together some truly remarkable projects for this competition,” said Gabriel Youtsey, chief innovation officer at UC ANR. “We hope the challenge attracts more students to consider careers in agriculture; we're here to help build a supportive community to grow that pipeline to the workforce.”
Providing a platform for students to demonstrate innovative design, field testing and evaluation, and real-world problem solving, the Farm Robotics Challenge is sponsored by F3 Innovate, Beck's Hybrids, California Tomato Research Institute and the United Soybean Board.
“It's a great day when engineers, marketing and technology folks understand there are great opportunities to create products for American farmers,” said Brad Fruth, director of innovation at Beck's Hybrids. “It has been exciting for Beck's Hybrids to participate in this challenge and see the bleeding edge of where technology and agriculture converge.”
The student teams leveraged AI, machine learning, automation, coding and fabrication to advance innovation in agriculture.
“Not only does the challenge demonstrate the future of farming with robotics, but it's also encouraging the next generation of engineers to focus their talents on the challenges that exist in growing our food,” said Brendan Dowdle, CEO of farm-ng. “The students who participate have a unique mix of skills in robotics, software and a passion for the future of agriculture.”
Grand Prize Winner: PhoenixBot, Olin College of Engineering, an autonomous mechanical weeding systembuilt to navigate through row-based crop fields of seedling to early-stage crops to effectively remove weeds from the beds
Team Advisor: Kenechukwu Mbanisi
Students:
Summer Crew/Leads: Jeffrey Woodyard, Dokyun Kim, AJ Evans, Toby Mallon, Brooke Moss
Subteam Leads: Dexter Friis-Hecht, Joe Leedy, Maya Adelman, Dominic Salmieri, Chang Jun Park, Akshat Jain
Team Members: Bill Le, Dongim Lee, Felix Halaska, Bhargavi Deshpande, Elisa Camacho, Cooper Penkava, Marcellus Smith, Rohan Bendapudi, Darian Jiminez, Ivy Mahncke, Quinn Verrill, Sam Wisnoski, Oscar Bao, Mia Chevere, Shauna Sperou
Excellence in Productivity: Florabot, Auburn University, a robot designed to autonomously navigate through nursery plant beds collecting imagery data for plant counting and quality assessment
Team Advisor: Tanzeel Rehman
Students: Hamid Syed, Faraz Ahmad, Mesbahul Maruf, Mohtasim Hadi, Carter Freeman
Excellence in Small Farms Technology: Bin Haulers, Washington State University & Heritage University, a precision agricultural robotic system designed for efficient bin-picking and placement in apple orchards
Team Advisors: Manoj Karkee, Safal Kshetri
Students: Dawood Ahmed, Syed Usama Bin Sabir, Divyanth L.G., Priyanka Upadhyaya, Achyut Paudel, Robert Barragan, Apol Medrano, Osmar Alvarez, Bethany Navaroo, Salvador Ayala
Excellence in Sustainability: TAMU-NCSU Robotics Team, Texas A&M University & North Carolina State University, a multi-modal proximal data collection system utilizing artificial intelligence to generate height maps for semi-structured row crop fields to aid in effective application of post-emergence herbicide
Team Advisors: Steven Brian Mirsky, Chris Reberg-Horton, Muthu Bagavathiannan
Students: Joe Johnson, Matthew Kutugata, Ruthvik Kanumuri, Wesley Hawkes, Jonathan Herrera, Luke Conran, Sebastian Chu
Excellence in Safety: University of California Santa Cruz, an application that allows a user to view the camera, as well as operate the Amiga robot, without a physical connection
Team Advisors: Dejan Milutinovic, Darryl Wong
Students: Katherine Rogacheva, Milos Suvakovic, Oliver Fuchs, Sam Leveau, Mauricio Chavez
In addition to recognition for their efforts, the Grand Prize Winner was awarded $10,000, and the Excellence in Productivity and Small Farms Technology winners won $5,000 each, while the Excellence in Sustainability and Safety winners won $2,500 each.
Other competitors in the challenge included teams from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, California State University Fresno, Hartnell College and The Pennsylvania State University.
For more information about the Farm Robotics Challenge, including details on how to participate, visit https://farmroboticschallenge.ai.
/h3>Partners unveil first on-farm robotics incubators
Opening in Salinas and Merced in 2025, Reservoir Farms will drive ag innovations in automation robotics
The Reservoir, a nonprofit building tech incubators across California, and partners Western Growers Association, University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, Merced College, Hartnell College and venture capital firm HawkTower have announced the creation of the first-ever on-farm robotics incubators, Reservoir Farms.
Unveiled during a press conference at the FIRA USA 2024 robotics conference in Woodland, Reservoir Farms are set to open in the Central and Salinas Valleys in early 2025. This pioneering initiative significantly shifts how agricultural technology innovates through real-world testing environments, world-class resources and critical industry partnerships.
California agriculture faces critical challenges, including labor availability and cost, import competition, increased regulation, water scarcity, and climate-related challenges, including extreme weather. These challenges have spurred significant advancements in agricultural precision, automation, mechanization, and robotics in recent years.
Despite advancements, early-stage agtech projects lack critical ecosystem support, like connecting directly with growers, testing and validating their solutions, and accessing dedicated shop space and farmland. These gaps hinder capital efficiency and the development of critical solutions that meet the agricultural sector's needs.
Initial projects at the incubators will focus on early-stage agricultural innovations in automation and robotics, including rovers and drones, that accelerate the development of breakthrough solutions to the opportunities and imperatives faced by California farms producing high-value specialty crops, such as labor shortages, profitability, and adopting climate-smart technologies.
Western Growers Association, a key advocate for advancing agricultural innovation, will provide financial and operational support as an anchor partner.
Anchor educational partners like UC ANR, Hartnell College, and Merced College will play a crucial role in innovation and workforce development, preparing the next generation of agricultural researchers, professionals, and innovators to drive the future of farming in California.
HawkTower, a venture capital firm investing in early-stage startups developing breakthrough innovations for California's environmental and industrial imperatives, is also an anchor partner.
“The launch of Reservoir Farms is a critical step forward in ensuring the future resilience of California's agriculture and across the Central Coast and Central Valley,” said Danny Bernstein, CEO of the Reservoir and managing partner of HawkTower. “By placing incubators directly on the farm, we enable innovators to test, iterate, and scale solutions in real-world conditions as a more immediate path to advance farming communities.”
A new model to incubate agtech innovation
The idea for Reservoir Farms emerged from extensive industry research and consultations with over 50 organizations in the specialty crop sector. Key insights uncovered critical gaps in startups' access to real-world testing environments, shop space, and direct relationships with growers – factors severely hindered capital efficiency and posed a formidable barrier to innovation.
“Our goal is to eliminate the friction points that have historically slowed down the development of new agtech solutions,” said Walt Duflock, senior vice president of innovation at Western Growers Association. “Reservoir Farms offers a new model, where startups can work side-by-side with growers to test their technologies, iterate in a low-stakes environment, and build scalable solutions to improve agriculture's operations.”
Initiative to support thriving agtech ecosystem and job creation
The Reservoir Farms initiative also reflects a broad-based collaboration between key educational institutions, industry players, and local communities to ensure the next generation of agricultural professionals is equipped with the skills needed to support the region's growing agtech sector.
Supporting partners include Central Coast Small Business Development Center (SBDC), Communities Organized for Relational Power in Action (COPA), Digital NEST, Farmhand Ventures, Merced County Farm Bureau, Milano Technical Group, Monterey Bay DART (Drone Automation & Robotics Technology), Monterey Bay Economic Partnership, Monterey County Farm Bureau, Tesserakt Ventures, and The VINE.
“As robotics and automation become more integral to California agriculture, it's essential to have facilities like Reservoir Farms embedded within the farming community,” said Gabriel Youtsey, chief innovation officer at UC ANR. “By bridging the gap between lab-based research and real-world application and accelerating tech transfer, Reservoir Farms can help build the workforce and technology needed to address the critical challenges on the farm, from labor shortages to climate change.”
Focus on specialized services and real-world testing in California's agricultural heartland
Reservoir Farms will open its first two locations in Salinas Valley and Merced in the first quarter of 2025. Participants can lease testing fields and shop space without the burden of multi-year leases, giving them the flexibility needed to scale. The incubators will offer fully equipped R&D workshops, secure storage for expensive equipment, and customized, pre-planted specialty crop fields for testing.
These facilities will be complemented by Reservoir Farms' co-working spaces, meeting rooms, and a robust demo day schedule designed to connect startups with growers, investors, and other key stakeholders.
In addition, the Western Growers Association's validation process will provide startups with a quantitative “scorecard” that offers crucial metrics on scalability, efficacy, and financial viability. This validation, combined with UC ANR's field testing, will help startups refine their products and receive a critical stamp of approval that builds trust with growers and ensures a smoother path to commercialization.
Media Contact:
Jennifer Goldston
AgTech PR for the Reservoir
816-260-0040
jennifer@agtechpr.com
UC ANR project to help underserved farmers in SoCal with land ownership
San Diego County has more than 5,000 small farms but less than 2% are operated or owned by Black, indigenous, or people of color – including those of Asian, Hispanic or Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander descent, according to the 2022 Ag Census.
The reasons vary, but historically, multiple marginalized communities of color have not received the same opportunities or support for land ownership or management as their white counterparts.
Chandra Richards, University of California Cooperative Extension land equity academic coordinator for the Southern California region, is identifying barriers to equity when it comes to addressing land access, tenure, management and opportunities to increase the diversity of land managers and land ownership in the region.
Richards is the principal investigator for the Climate Action and Land Equity (CALE) project administered through UC Agriculture and Natural Resources and funded by the Department of Conservation. CALE aims to engage historically underrepresented communities in coalition building, capacity assessment and climate action planning. CALE elevates knowledge about the challenges and opportunities to land access and management for a diversity of land managers.
Among the challenges is land tenure, an established agreement between a landowner and tenant, outlining the purpose and use of the land over a period of time. However, when landowners decide to sell their land, these agreements are at risk of being null and void, forcing the tenants to renegotiate or discontinue their operation.
Land tenure leases for under five years are considered short-term, which are common in Southern California. For small, new and under-resourced farmers, landowner turnover doesn't just threaten their business plan but their livelihood.
For small farmer Byron Nkhoma, who leases land in Ramona to grow leafy greens and vegetables, the possibility of losing land is a constant worry. Since 2015, Nkhoma and his wife, Joyce, have been renting four of 20 acres to establish Hukama Produce. Over nine years, they have had two landowners. Before the land was sold to his current landowner, Nkhoma said he considered buying land, but the process proved more challenging than he thought.
“What it takes for someone like Byron to find a place to farm and establish a food system is an extremely involved process,” said Richards. “It's not just learning how to obtain land, it's also about managing that land so it can be used for years and generations to come.”
Originally from Zimbabwe, Nkhoma is adamant about taking care of the land he leases and has applied knowledge from his home to ensure resilience. Hukama Produce prides itself in improving environmental health through sustainable farming practices such as compost and mulch application, drip irrigation and low till. An important pillar of the CALE project includes building capacity and providing technical assistance toward land conservation and climate resiliency.
In addition to land tenure, money and time are stressors for small farmers. When they are not working on the farm, Nkhoma and his wife are researching and applying for grants to improve their soils and protect their crops from pests. However, many grants for which Hukama Produce is eligible often have pressing deadlines that demand their immediate attention – cutting into valuable time that could be spent tending to the land or selling at farmer's markets.
Two of Hukama's goals include building and sustaining trust in the market and growing their operation. By partnering with Richards, Hukama Produce has direct access to technical assistance focused on grant writing and conservation to increase ecosystem health and build tenure.
Agricultural land tenure is the arrangement, rights, and responsibilities centered around use, management, and ownership of agricultural land and resources. Building land tenure means that farmers have a stable place to grow their crops and build environmental sustainability without risk of having to move their operations.
While the CALE project boosts support for historically underserved community members hoping to own or manage land, it prioritizes land use for food production as a reinvestment into the greater community.
Eager to bring realities like Nhkoma's to light, Richards partnered with Keith Nathaniel, UCCE director for Los Angeles County, who co-coordinated the Western Extension Leadership Development conference held in San Diego the week of Sept. 23-27. WELD unites Cooperative Extension faculty, agents, advisors, educators and specialists from the western region of the United States for a two-year leadership development program.
While in San Diego, WELD participants joined Richards for a tour of Hukama Produce and learned directly from Nkhoma about opportunities and threats as a small farmer. The tour ended with participants in a circle, sharing how their professional roles can offer support to Hukama Produce and other small farms.
“We grow food so that we can feed the community,” said Nkhoma. “When we feed others, we build relationships. That's what ‘hukama' means – to grow relationships.”
If you operate or know of a small farm in Southern California and would like to be involved with or receive regular updates about the CALE project, please contact Chandra Richards at cmrichards@ucanr.edu.
If you are interested in applying for the Land Equity Project Manager position, please visit https://ucanr.edu/About/Jobs/?jobnum=2894 for details.
Investments in farm-to-school program stabilize farms, expand climate-friendly farming practices
Small and midsize farms, women and BIPOC farmers especially benefit
A new report reveals that California farmers participating in the state's Farm to School Incubator Grant Program are increasing sales of fresh, local and organic produce, meat and dairy products to schools, according to researchers evaluating program impacts. The report found that 57% of the program's farmers made sales to schools between April and September 2023, representing an average of 33% of their total farm revenues. All food producers funded by the Farm to School Grant Program state that they use or plan to use climate-smart agricultural practices in their operations during the grant period.
While existing research shows that kids who engage with farm-to-school programs eat more fruits and vegetables, are more willing to try healthy foods, and even perform better in class, the California farm-to-school evaluation project examines a gap that most farm-to-school research hasn't addressed: how local purchases from schools affect the agricultural sector and the environment.
The report found that the investments are flowing primarily to the farmers the state seeks to support through this program: Of the 50 producer grantees evaluated in this report, 42% are owned by people who identify as Black, Indigenous and People of Color, and 62% are owned by women. Nearly all (94%) are small to midsize operations.
Three producer grantees revealed that the Farm to School Incubator Grant Program funding likely prevented them from going out of business. “This grant … has and will enable us to do things on the farm that would probably take us a decade to do but we'll be able to do that in one or two seasons. So [it] really moves us forward a lot,” noted one farmer.
Beth Katz, a lead researcher and executive director of Food Insight Group, said, “Farmers are expanding their relationships with local school districts, increasing their sales to schools, investing in infrastructure and staff, and forming new relationships with food hubs that can help them with the often complex purchasing requirements unique to school food. While we're still at a very early stage of understanding the impacts of these investments, we're beginning to see patterns emerge.”
A Humboldt County farmer noted that food hubs, which are also supported by the grant program, are critical to their success in accessing the school food market: “[The food hub] is really a huge game changer to be able to make that one drop in town, even though it's an hour away, rather than going to [several school sites] and just making all these little drops. That's been one of the ways that it's very . . .appealing to us as a farm to participate.”
The report also examines the potential for environmental impacts through direct investments in farmers who use climate-friendly farming practices.
“I'm inspired by the potential for the farm-to-school program to support farmers using environmentally beneficial practices like reducing pesticides, planting cover crops and growing organic — and to help farmers expand or adopt these practices. It's essential these farmers have a market for what they grow to see durable environmental benefits,” said Tim Bowles, who is leading the environmental impacts assessment for the evaluation team and is an assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy & Management at UC Berkeley and lead faculty director of the Berkeley Food Institute.
“We're also seeing farms actually expand their acreage in order to sell to schools, suggesting this is a desirable market. We're investigating the environmental impacts from these investments, especially for climate,” Bowles said.
As with many new programs aimed at building out long-delayed infrastructure, school food systems improvement demands a deep-rooted approach.
“The challenges around changing a complex school food system are substantial,” Gail Feenstra, a pioneer in farm-to-school research and co-lead on the project from UC ANR stated. “Decades of research shows the value to children from fresh, locally sourced food. However, what is becoming more clear from this research is that long-term investments in the full farm to school system are crucial. Without regional-level infrastructure, staffing, aggregation and distribution in place to support getting that locally grown food from farms to the schools and kids, we'll have challenges moving the needle.
"Fortunately, the state's strategic and innovative investments in the entire farm to school supply chain – meaning funding for school districts, farmers and also their regional partners, combined with support from CDFA's regional staff – are beginning to address those long-standing challenges.”
/h3>Could empty lots be growing food, economic opportunity?
UCCE scientists study feasibility of specialty crops for small urban growers
The vacant lots around your neighborhood could be growing fruits and vegetables and making local produce more accessible – while reducing energy needed to transport and distribute the food. Could turning those empty lots into small farms also become opportunities for economic development?
To answer this question, a team of researchers from University of California Cooperative Extension in San Diego County are investigating the economic feasibility of growing high-value specialty crops in urban settings like vacant lots. The project – led by Eric Middleton, UCCE integrated pest management advisor for San Diego, Orange and Los Angeles counties – is currently in progress at The Flower Fields in Carlsbad, a seasonal attraction for locals and tourists.
Tucked away in the back of the field is the Small-Scale Urban Ag Demonstration Site where Middleton and his team established a small farm on approximately 17,000 square feet, starting fall 2023. Funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture, the farm is designed to evaluate containerized production both outdoors and under high tunnels.
Growers don't necessarily need land, just space
High tunnels, also referred to as hoop houses, are semi-permanent structures that act similarly to greenhouses in providing a controlled environment. For the experiment, Middleton will compare cost, effort and durability of two types of high tunnels: one made of steel and the other out of PVC pipes.
“We want to give interested growers information on as many options as we can,” said Middleton, who explained that the project is motivated by the challenges of urban settings, including limited space and lack of arable land.
In the trial, they are growing turmeric, ginger and blueberries. The high-value crops were selected because of their potential to earn a profit. Data evaluating plant variety, soil mix, fertilizer, growth performance, yield and pest and disease pressures will be collected and reported when the project concludes in 2026.
As the crops develop in containers – blueberries in pots and turmeric and ginger in grow bags – Middleton pointed out the mobility aspect of the study, noting that growers don't necessarily need land, just space.
Whether it's a backyard or a rooftop, containerized production means easier transport, especially since vacant land doesn't always remain vacant forever and urban lots may often need soil remediation. Growing in containers solves the anticipated problem of having to relocate.
Where to set up shop in San Diego County
Jan Gonzales, project coordinator and community education supervisor for UCCE San Diego County, is leading the effort to identify available urban land in San Diego County as well as the policies and procedures for growers to access these spaces.
Gonzales is collaborating with community members who are working on similar projects to identify space for prospective growers.
“This has been done before for different objectives and for specific areas in the region, but the information was either project-specific and not publicly available, or not easy to find,” Gonzales said.
Having spoken with people associated with previous or ongoing agricultural land mapping projects, Gonzales has agreed to coordinate and facilitate an advisory work group to discuss areas of potential collaboration and develop project efficiencies. She anticipates holding the first group meeting before the end of the summer.
A production guide to help community members re-create the project
The ideal audience for a study like this is anyone who wants to grow specialty crops, according to Lindsey Pedroncelli, interim director of UC South Coast Research and Extension Center in Irvine, who worked on the project alongside Middleton when she was a staff research associate with UCCE San Diego.
“If you're a new grower or a grower who wants to diversify your crop production, what we're learning here can be applied to you,” said Pedroncelli.
Pedroncelli has been instrumental in bringing the experiment to life and documenting its step-by-step workflow thus far. The production guide, which is being created as the study unfolds, will include instructions detailing how to replicate the experiment from the ground up. Currently, it contains information on how to design your farm, the materials to buy, building structures, irrigation setup and crop management.
The most intriguing open question, whether the operation is profitable, is the driving force behind the production guide and will certainly be addressed, Pedroncelli said.
Book a tour and visit the farm
When visiting the farm, you'll encounter three varieties of blueberries: Star, Snowchaser and Misty. Snowchaser has been a top producer since it was planted in January, but the variety is known to be an early season producer.
Using only one variety of each, the turmeric and ginger were planted in late March-early April. With some unanticipated cold weather in San Diego County, both crops struggled when transitioning out of dormancy, leading to very slow progress, which the team is still navigating today.
Visually, Middleton and his team have noticed differences between the crops growing under the high tunnels versus those grown outdoors, although the data has not been analyzed to confirm or explain notable differences.
Attempting to demonstrate how to profitably grow high-value crops in urban settings using limited space and resources, Pedroncelli said she hopes this study will also encourage people to grow culturally significant crops for their communities.
To tour the Small-Scale Urban Ag Demonstration Site at The Flower Fields in Carlsbad, email Eric Middleton at egmiddleton@ucanr.edu with "Urban Agriculture Demonstration Site Tour" in the subject line.
To learn more about the project and its progress, visit https://ucanr.edu/sites/socalIPM/Small_Scale_Urban_Agriculture_Project_/.
/h4>