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The Hands Free Hectare (HFH) project was established in order to develop and showcase agricultural automation by completing the world's first fully autonomous cropping cycle. [1] [2] [3] Based at Harper Adams University, Shropshire, UK, working in collaboration with Precision Decisions. [4]
The idea for the Hands Free Hectare project was conceived in 2015 by two staff working in the Engineering Department at Harper Adams University, Kit Franklin and Jonathan Gill, who were frustrated by the pace and limited scope of academic developments in the area of field agricultural automation/robotics that they believed had become stagnant [1] when compared to tech sectors such as UAVs. Jonathan was utilising open source technologies (OS Software & OS hardware) to build UAVs and the pair felt they could adapt these systems to work on agricultural vehicles. [1] They also felt it was critical to showcase the machines operating in the field to change the perception of the agricultural industry [1] and being the first to complete a full cropping cycle seemed like a compelling challenge. With publicity in mind, the project would need a memorable name. Hands Free Hectare came out of a short discussion between Kit and Jonathan. It was written down on a post-it note and stuck on the lab wall where is stayed for nearly a year prior to the project, as is described in episode 75 of the Rock and Roll Farming podcast. [5]
After considering how to get the project off the ground, Kit and Jonathan approached Clive Blacker, the director of Precision Decisions and a prominent precision agriculture service provider, to propose an Innovate UK collaboration whereby working together they would develop an autonomous system and grow a first crop. [6]
The project started in October 2016, with the team initially conducting system developments on a small prototype vehicle [7] prior to receiving the ISEKI compact tractor which was adapted to conduct autonomous farming tasks. During the project the team (now also including Precision Decisions engineer Martin Abell) worked as a fully integrated "skunk works" to develop the systems needed. Progress was reviewed and monitored weekly to avoid missing strict cropping cycle dates, as discussed at the IAgrE Landwards Conference 2018.[ citation needed ] As per the name of the project, the area to be farmed autonomously was a hectare of land. It was fenced off to ensure the safety of visitors to the site, and also gave it the feel of an arena.
On the 25th of April 2017, the project conducted its first major in field autonomous cropping task by drilling spring barley into the hectare. [8] This was followed by autonomous rolling of the drilled crop on the 28th of April to which journalist and media were invited to attend, resulting in considerable coverage. [9] [10]
In September 2017, the project met its goal to complete a fully autonomous cropping cycle when the spring barely was harvested. [11] This is recognised as the point at which a world's first had been achieved; a key milestone for autonomous agriculture. [3]
A total of ten autonomous field operations were conducted in the growing of the HFH spring barley. Alongside the autonomous field operations, all the agronomy for the HFH was conducted remotely by agronomist Kieran Walsh using information gathered by drones and ground scouting vehicles. [12] [13]
Following the success and positive reception to the HFH project, a follow on year was agreed and funded by the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB). [14] The aim of this second year of the project was to iterate and improve the performance of the autonomous systems as well as looking to improve the techniques used to conduct remote agronomy. [14]
The crop grown in the second year was winter wheat and the autonomous tractor was improved to allow for remote start up and control system changes enabling the tractor and combine to run simultaneously and unloading on the move. [14] [15] Reporting and videos from harvest can be seen in The Farmers Weekly. [16]
In 2018 the HFH project won the Future Food award at the BBC Food and Farming Awards [17] [18]
Precision agriculture (PA) is a farming management concept based on observing, measuring and responding to inter and intra-field variability in crops. The goal of precision agriculture research is to define a decision support system (DSS) for whole farm management with the goal of optimizing returns on inputs while preserving resources.
Mechanised agriculture is the process of using agricultural machinery to mechanise the work of agriculture, greatly increasing farm worker productivity. In modern times, powered machinery has replaced many farm jobs formerly carried out by manual labour or by working animals such as oxen, horses and mules.
Canada is one of the largest agricultural producers and exporters in the world. As with other developed nations, the proportion of the population agriculture employed and agricultural GDP as a percentage of the national GDP fell dramatically over the 20th century, but it remains an important element of the Canadian economy. A wide range of agriculture is practised in Canada, from sprawling wheat fields of the prairies to summer produce of the Okanagan valley. In the federal government, overview of Canadian agriculture is the responsibility of the Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food.
The history of agriculture in India dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization. India ranks second worldwide in farm outputs. As per 2018, agriculture employed more than 50% of the Indian work force and contributed 17–18% to country's GDP.
AHDB Potatoes, previously known as the Potato Council, is a trade organisation that aims to develop and promote the potato industry in Great Britain. Previously an independent non-departmental public body, it has been a division of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board since 1 April 2008.
Agriculture in Kazakhstan remains a small scale sector of Kazakhstan's economy. Agriculture's contribution to the GDP is under 10% - it was recorded as 6.7%, and as occupying only 20% of labor. At the same time, more than 70% of its land is occupied in crops and animal husbandry. Compared to North America, a relatively small percentage of land is used for crops, with the percentage being higher in the north of the country. 70% of the agricultural land is permanent pastureland.
An agricultural robot is a robot deployed for agricultural purposes. The main area of application of robots in agriculture today is at the harvesting stage. Emerging applications of robots or drones in agriculture include weed control, cloud seeding, planting seeds, harvesting, environmental monitoring and soil analysis. According to Verified Market Research, the agricultural robots market is expected to reach $11.58 billion by 2025.
Agriculture in Saskatchewan is the production of various food, feed, or fiber commodities to fulfill domestic and international human and animal sustenance needs. The newest agricultural economy to be developed in renewable biofuel production or agricultural biomass which is marketed as ethanol or biodiesel. Plant cultivation and livestock production have abandoned subsistence agricultural practices in favor of intensive technological farming resulting in cash crops which contribute to the economy of Saskatchewan. The particular commodity produced is dependent upon its particular biogeography or ecozone of Geography of Saskatchewan. Agricultural techniques and activities have evolved over the years. The first nation nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle and the early immigrant ox and plow farmer proving up on his quarter section of land in no way resemble the present farmer operating huge amounts of land or livestock with their attendant technological mechanization. Challenges to the future of Saskatchewan agriculture include developing sustainable water management strategies for a cyclical drought prone climate in south western Saskatchewan, updating dryland farming techniques, stabilizing organic definitions or protocols and the decision to grow, or not to grow genetically modified foods. Domestically and internationally, some commodities have faced increased scrutiny from disease and the ensuing marketing issues.
Agriculture in the United Kingdom uses 69% of the country's land area, employs 1.5% of its workforce and contributes 0.6% of its gross value added. The UK produces less than 60% of the food it consumes.
The role of agriculture in the Bolivian economy in the late 1980s expanded as the collapse of the tin industry forced the country to diversify its productive and export base. Agricultural production as a share of GDP was approximately 23 percent in 1987, compared with 30 percent in 1960 and a low of just under 17 percent in 1979. The recession of the 1980s, along with unfavorable weather conditions, particularly droughts and floods, hampered output. Agriculture employed about 46 percent of the country's labor force in 1987. Most production, with the exception of coca, focused on the domestic market and self-sufficiency in food. Agricultural exports accounted for only about 15 percent of total exports in the late 1980s, depending on weather conditions and commodity prices for agricultural goods, hydrocarbons, and minerals.
Agriculture in Jordan contributed substantially to the economy at the time of Jordan's independence, but it subsequently suffered a decades-long steady decline. In the early 1950s, agriculture constituted almost 40 percent of GNP; on the eve of the June 1967 War, it was 17 percent.
Agricultural machinery relates to the mechanical structures and devices used in farming or other agriculture. There are many types of such equipment, from hand tools and power tools to tractors and the countless kinds of farm implements that they tow or operate. Diverse arrays of equipment are used in both organic and nonorganic farming. Especially since the advent of mechanised agriculture, agricultural machinery is an indispensable part of how the world is fed.
Agriculture in South Africa contributes around 5% of formal employment, relatively low compared to other parts of Africa and the number is still decreasing, as well as providing work for casual laborers and contributing around 2.6 percent of GDP for the nation. Due to the aridity of the land, only 13.5 percent can be used for crop production, and only 3 percent is considered high potential land.
Farming Systems in India are strategically utilized, according to the locations where they are most suitable. The farming systems that significantly contribute to the agriculture of India are subsistence farming, organic farming, industrial farming. Regions throughout India differ in types of farming they use; some are based on horticulture, ley farming, agroforestry, and many more. Due to India's geographical location, certain parts experience different climates, thus affecting each region's agricultural productivity differently. India is very dependent on its monsoon cycle for large crop yields. India's agriculture has an extensive background which goes back to at least 9 thousand years. In India, Agriculture was established throughout most of the subcontinent by 6000–5000 BP. During the 5th millennium BP, in the alluvial plains of the Indus River in Pakistan, the old cities of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa experienced an apparent establishment of an organized farming urban culture. That society, known as the Harappan or Indus civilization, flourished until shortly after 4000 BP; it was much more comprehensive than those of Egypt or Babylonia and appeared earlier than analogous societies in northern China. Currently, the country holds the second position in agricultural production in the world. In 2007, agriculture and other industries made up more than 16% of India's GDP. Despite the steady decline in agriculture's contribution to the country's GDP, agriculture is the biggest industry in the country and plays a key role in the socio-economic growth of the country. India is the second-largest producer of wheat, rice, cotton, sugarcane, silk, groundnuts, and dozens more. It is also the second biggest harvester of vegetables and fruit, representing 8.6% and 10.9% of overall production, respectively. The major fruits produced by India are mangoes, papayas, sapota, and bananas. India also has the biggest number of livestock in the world, holding 281 million. In 2008, the country housed the second largest number of cattle in the world with 175 million.
Harper Adams University, founded in 1901 as Harper Adams College, is a public university located close to the village of Edgmond, near Newport, in Shropshire, England. Established in 1901, the college is a specialist provider of higher education for the agricultural and rural sector. It gained university college status in 1998, and university status in 2012 when the requirements were relaxed.
A driverless tractor is an autonomous farm vehicle that delivers a high tractive effort at slow speeds for the purposes of tillage and other agricultural tasks. It is considered driverless because it operates without the presence of a human inside the tractor itself. Like other unmanned ground vehicles, they are programmed to independently observe their position, decide speed, and avoid obstacles such as people, animals, or objects in the field while performing their task. The various driverless tractors are split into full autonomous technology and supervised autonomy. The idea of the driverless tractor appears as early as 1940, but the concept has significantly evolved in the last few years. The tractors use GPS and other wireless technologies to farm land without requiring a driver. They operate simply with the aid of a supervisor monitoring the progress at a control station or with a manned tractor in lead.
The Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute is a public engineering research and development institution in Durgapur, West Bengal, India. It is a constituent laboratory of the Indian Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). This institute is the only national level research institute in the field of mechanical engineering in India.
FarmBot is an open source precision agriculture CNC farming project consisting of a Cartesian coordinate robot farming machine, software and documentation including a farming data repository. The project aims to "Create an open and accessible technology aiding everyone to grow food and to grow food for everyone." FarmBot is an open source project allowing hardware, software and documentation modifications and additions from users.
XAG Co., Ltd., formerly known as XAircraft, is a Chinese manufacturer of agricultural drones headquartered in Guangzhou, Guangdong. Founded in 2007 by Peng Bin, Justin Gong and others, the company initially developed consumer drones. After visiting a cotton farm in Xinjiang and witnessing how the aging farmers had to strap heavy pesticide tanks onto they backs and labor for hours to spray the chemicals over their crops, they decided to take what the company was doing with drone technology and specialize in agricultural UAVs. With the intent to help increase the quality and quantity of crops produced, as well as lessen the strain on farmers, XAG took initiative and developed crop-dusting drones in 2013, and by 2019, it controlled more than half of China's market for agricultural drones. Significantly contributing to the future of crop yield and precision farming in China.
This glossary of agriculture is a list of definitions of terms and concepts used in agriculture, its sub-disciplines, and related fields. For other glossaries relevant to agricultural science, see Glossary of biology, Glossary of ecology, Glossary of environmental science, and Glossary of botany.
