Harvesting stakeholder insights on protected cropping R&D
Hort Innovation and Protected Cropping Australia held a Summit on 17 March to develop a fresh R&D plan for the sector.
Hort Innovation and Protected Cropping Australia held a Summit on 17 March to develop a fresh R&D plan for the sector.
A new, $6.8M FFS project links vertical farm operators, data solutions providers and seed distributors with crop, sensor and IoT experts to develop tools that monitor and manage crop performance, pests, pathogens and pollination in near-real-time, enabling automated indoor production.
QUT robotics experts have developed a self-guiding robotic platform that enables hands-free pollination in a commercial greenhouse, paving the way to cost-effective automation of labour-intensive tasks.
The Summit mini-expo, a mix of future food innovations, Indigenous ingredients, upcycled products, agricultural robots and healthy pulse-based snacks, was a chance for Future Food Systems CRC and QUT to showcase their capabilities in the sustainable agrifood space.
Experts in infrastructure planning and transport logistics, advanced nutritional analysis and innovative, Indigenous-led agrifood systems from the Netherlands, UK and Canada gave attendees of the 2022 Future of Food Summit much food for thought.
Four fascinating guided tours, free to Summit delegates, showcase QUT’s world-class capabilities in robotics and automation, agrifood innovation, tropical crops, advanced analysis and Indigenous ingredients.
CRC supporting partner Qatar University is drawing on the expertise and state-of-the-art greenhouse facilities at Western Sydney University to help it develop sustainable fertigation solutions for indoor growers.
Sri-Lanka-born, Western Sydney University-based Eranda Namal Jayasuriya is one of two PhD students attached to the CRC’s ‘IoT for indoor cropping’ project.
Western Sydney University post-doc researcher Sachin Chavan’s CRC report ‘Protected cropping: Current technologies and target crops’ is the cover feature for the June 2022 issue of peer-reviewed journal Crops.
Brisbane’s ARM Hub, North Queensland Banana Farmers and Hort Innovation have teamed up to help growers identify opportunities to cut costs by adopting ‘continuous improvement and automation technology’.