Precision Agriculture Technology for Crop Farming

This book provides a review of precision agriculture technology development, followed by a presentation of the state-of-the-art and future requirements of precision agriculture technology. It presents different styles of precision agriculture technologies suitable for large scale mechanized farming; highly automated community-based mechanized production; and fully mechanized farming practices commonly seen in emerging economic regions. The book emphasizes the introduction of core technical features of sensing, data processing and interpretation technologies, crop modeling and production control theory, intelligent machinery and field robots for precision agriculture production

Precision Agriculture Technology for Crop Farming

This book provides a review of precision agriculture technology development, followed by a presentation of the state-of-the-art and future requirements of precision agriculture technology. It presents different styles of precision agriculture technologies suitable for large scale mechanized farming; highly automated community-based mechanized production; and fully mechanized farming practices commonly seen in emerging economic regions. The book emphasizes the introduction of core technical features of sensing, data processing and interpretation technologies, crop modeling and production control theory, intelligent machinery and field robots for precision agriculture production

Proceedings of the European Conference on Agricultural Engineering AgEng2021

This proceedings book results from the AgEng2021 Agricultural Engineering Conference under auspices of the European Society of Agricultural Engineers, held in an online format based on the University of Évora, Portugal, from 4 to 8 July 2021. This book contains the full papers of a selection of abstracts that were the base for the oral presentations and posters presented at the conference. Presentations were distributed in eleven thematic areas: Artificial Intelligence, data processing and management; Automation, robotics and sensor technology; Circular Economy; Education and Rural development; Energy and bioenergy; Integrated and sustainable Farming systems; New application technologies and mechanisation; Post-harvest technologies; Smart farming / Precision agriculture; Soil, land and water engineering; Sustainable production in Farm buildings

An economic analysis of a robotic harvest technology in New Zealand fresh apple industry : a dissertation presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Agribusiness, Massey University School of Agriculture and Environment, Manawatu, New Zealand

The New Zealand apple industry is predominately an export-oriented industry relying on manual labour throughout the year. In recent years, however, labour shortages for harvesting have been jeopardising its competitiveness and profitability. Temporary immigration labour programs, such as the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) program have not been able to solve the labour shortages, urging the industry to consider use of harvesting automation, i.e. robotic technology, as a solution. Harvesting robots are still in commercial trial stage and no studies have assessed the economic feasibility of such technology. The present study for the first time develops a bio-economic model to analyse the investment decision for adopting harvesting robots compared to available alternatives, i.e. platform and manual harvesting systems, using net present value (NPV) as the method of analysis; for newly established single-, bi-, and multi-varietal orchards across different orchard sizes, and three apple varieties (Envy, Jazz, and Royal Gala); and implications of orchard canopy transition and associated sensitivities are considered. The results of the analysis identified fruit value and yield as the key drivers for the adoption of harvesting automation. For relatively low value and or yielding varieties such as Jazz or Royal Gala, robots are less profitable in single-varietal orchard compared to bi-varietal orchard planted with relatively low value and yielding varieties. In a multi-varietal orchard, a relatively high value and high yield variety, such as Envy, is crucial to compensate for the costs incurred for harvesting other varieties using robots or platforms. The greatest potential benefit of utilising harvesting robots was reducing pickers required by an average of 54% for Envy and 48% for each of Jazz and Royal Gala across all orchard sizes compared to manual harvesting; and 7% in average for each of Envy, Jazz, and Royal Gala across all orchard sizes compared to platform harvesting system. This study also identified the break-even price for a robotic harvester in a single-varietal orchard, showed that the break-even prices exceeded the assumed price of the robot, and are highly variable depending on the varietal value and yield, where Envy as a relatively higher value and yielding variety returns a break-even price of $2.92 million compared to relatively lower value and yielding varieties, Jazz with$674,895, and Royal Gala with $689,608. Sensitivity analyses showed that both harvesting speed and efficiency are key parameters in the modelled orchard and positively affected the net returns of the investment and must be considered by researchers and manufacturers. However, for developers and potential adopters of robots, it should be more important that robots operate faster, but not necessarily as more efficient in order to generate a high return while substituting the highest number of pickers and leaving less unharvested fruit on trees in the limited harvesting window. Reducing robot price by 12% and 42% can generate an equivalent level of profit similar to manual or platform harvesting, respectively. Increases in labour wages, and decreases in labour availability and efficiency adversely affected the NPV and profitability outlook of the investment, but NPV was more affected by the decreases in labour efficiency and availability than wage increases. This research has important science and policy implications for policy makers, academics, growers, engineers, and manufacturers. From an economic perspective, for late adopters or those growers who may not be financially able to invest in robots or may be uncertain about their performance, platform harvesting system can be utilised as an alternative solution that is commercially available until robotic harvesting technology improves or becomes more affordable, and commercially available. Alternatively, it may be possible for these orchardists to benefit from utilising the robotic harvester in the form of a co-operative or contract-harvesting business model to avoid the capital costs associated with purchasing and operating the robots. Besides the economic factors, robotic harvesters have the potential to be considered as a solution for non-economic factors such as food safety problems. This is more apparent in the post-Covid-19 pandemic era, which has not only made it more difficult for growers to source their required workers due to border closures, but also has led consumers to be more cautious about food safety when they make purchase decisions and prefer to have their fresh fruit touchless from farm to plate. This may not be a problem for packhouses as most are automated, but it may be an issue for harvesting operations, because pickers have to pick apples by hand. Even though robots cannot be the only option for growers to rely on for the foreseeable future as they are not commercially available, in the current situation robot harvesting may be the most ideal solution

Situating Data

Taking up the challenges of the datafication of culture, as well as of the scholarship of cultural inquiry itself, this collection contributes to the critical debate about data and algorithms. How can we understand the quality and significance of current socio-technical transformations that result from datafication and algorithmization? How can we explore the changing conditions and contours for living within such new and changing frameworks? How can, or should we, think and act within, but also in response to these conditions? This collection brings together various perspectives on the datafication and algorithmization of culture from debates and disciplines within the field of cultural inquiry, specifically (new) media studies, game studies, urban studies, screen studies, and gender and postcolonial studies. It proposes conceptual and methodological directions for exploring where, when, and how data and algorithms (re)shape cultural practices, create (in)justice, and (co)produce knowledge

New Vision 2050: A Platinum Society

This book presents the "New Vision 2050," which adds the concept of the “platinum society” to the “Vision 2050”. The 20th century was a century in which energy led the development of material civilization, resulting in deletion of resources, global warming and climate change. What form should sustainable material and energy take to protect the Earth? The "Vision 2050" was established 20 years ago as a model that we should pursue for the next half century. Fortunately, the world is on course for the Vision 2050. The 21st century will be a century in which we seek qualitative richness, with the Vision 2050 as the material basis. That is, a “platinum society” that has resource self-sufficiency and resource symbiosis, and where people remain active throughout their lives and have a wide range of choices and opportunities for free participation. Since the author presented the concept of "Vision 2050" in 1999, the idea has been introduced in two books entitled Vision 2050: Roadmap for a Sustainable Earth (2008) and Beyond the Limits to Growth: New Ideas for Sustainability from Japan (2014). The latter includes a chapter that sheds light on the concept of a “platinum society”. In this publication, the author presents the "New Vision 2050" in more detail

Digitalization and Development

This book examines the diffusion of digitalization and Industry 4.0 technologies in Malaysia by focusing on the ecosystem critical for its expansion. The chapters examine the digital proliferation in major sectors of agriculture, manufacturing, e-commerce and services, as well as the intermediary organizations essential for the orderly performance of socioeconomic agents. The book incisively reviews policy instruments critical for the effective and orderly development of the embedding organizations, and the regulatory framework needed to quicken the appropriation of socioeconomic synergies from digitalization and Industry 4.0 technologies. It highlights the importance of collaboration between government, academic and industry partners, as well as makes key recommendations on how to encourage adoption of IR4.0 technologies in the short- and long-term. This book bridges the concepts and applications of digitalization and Industry 4.0 and will be a must-read for policy makers seeking to quicken the adoption of its technologies

The Fourth Industrial Revolution and the Recolonisation of Africa

This book argues that the fourth industrial revolution, the process of accelerated automation of traditional manufacturing and industrial practices via digital technology, will serve to further marginalise Africa within the international community. In this book, the author argues that the looting of Africa that started with human capital and then natural resources, now continues unabated via data and digital resources looting. Developing on the notion of "Coloniality of Data", the fourth industrial revolutionis postulated as the final phase which will conclude Africa’s peregrination towards recolonisation. Global cartels, networks of coloniality, and tech multi-national corporations have turned Big Data into capital, which is left unguarded in Africa as the continent lacks the strong institutions necessary to regulate the mining of data. Written from a decolonial perspective, this book employs three analytical pillars of coloniality of power, knowledge and being. It concludes with an assessment of what could be done to help to turn the fourth industrial revolution from a curse into a resource. Highlighting the crippling continuation of asymmetrical global power relations, this book will be an important read for researchers of African studies, politics and international political economy