2019 ASHS Annual Conference

Horticultural crops require intensive management, inputs, and labor. Unlike agronomic crops, many horticultural crops are harvested by hand and require intense and constant care, such as pruning, weeding, disease and pest control, irrigation, and fertilization. On average, hand harvesting of fruit and vegetable crops accounts for about 50% of total production costs. With decreasing labor availability and increasing production and labor costs, automation is becoming increasingly important to maintain the profitable production of horticultural crops. Automation technologies can be implemented in many farming operations including harvesting, weed control, disease and pest control, and field scouting. They can also be integrated with other advanced technologies (e.g. drones, artificial intelligence, internet of things, etc.) to create new farming-assistant tools, such as yield forecasting and plant stress detection. Therefore, automation technologies have the potential to not only reduce labor and input costs, but also improve crop productivity, management, and production efficiency. This workshop will focus on discussing key challenges and opportunities in implementing automation technologies in farming operations for horticultural crops.

Objectives

Workshop participants will gain: 1) up-to-date information on the current state of automation in various farming operations, 2) understandings on the potential of automation technologies to revolutionize the horticultural industry, 3) information on the current and emerging application of automation technologies, research questions, challenges, and opportunities, 4) a greater familiarity with industry and scientific communities involved in precision agriculture and automation technologies, and 5) networking opportunities for potential collaboration.

Program

• Part 1 (60 min) has 9 presentations, which will provide synopses on various automation technologies including unmanned aerial vehicles, plant stress sensing, disease detection, precision weed control, harvesting robotics, and yield forecasting.
• Part 2 (30 min) is a moderated group-wide discussion focusing on challenges and opportunities in automation technologies for the horticulture industry.
• Part 3 is a supplementary session at an exhibitor booth (VCM/SSEST Interest Groups: Automation Technologies for Horticultural Crop – joint exhibit booth by Vegetable Crops Management and Seed and Stand Establishment Interest Groups) during the ASHS conference. We will use multimedia and display automated equipment and devices to provide interactive, hands-on learning opportunities.