Before the first harvest robot drives through the greenhouses, millions of cucumbers will still be manually picked. However, robots are already working in packing and sorting. Beltech is one of the companies focused on the development of a harvest robot, but the company has already delivered a packing robot as well.
Although vertical farms producing leafy greens are receiving most of the press coverage, there are a variety of other crops being being grown and innovative growers are finding these crops to be profitable.
World’s population is growing, so is the plastic wastes that people produce. According to the United Nations estimates, annually more than 8 million tons of plastics flow into the oceans.
Western Cape farmers have built Africa’s first commercial floating solar park – it now let’s them tackle load shedding and drought. They say it’s a better investment than a new orchard.
The Department of Agriculture in the Western Cape is at the forefront of using technology to enhance sustainable farming, and as part of its initiative to embrace the fourth industrial revolution, has introduced Sentinel-2 earth observation technology.
From 3D printing to blockchain, automation to predictive analytics, the fourth industrial revolution is changing how the manufacturing industry is operating. However, with this rapid transformation comes manufacturing talent challenges, exacerbated by an industry that has struggled to recruit the right people.
