PR91593

ONO, Japan, Sept. 13, 2021 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

As Japanese farmers struggle to maintain high quality fruit production amid

labour shortage, XAG autonomous farm robots are now pitching in to help manage

the orchards with high precision. Since XAG unveiled its R150 unmanned ground

vehicle into the Japanese market this June, this all-electric, nimble farm

helper has been trialled for crop spraying across a variety of orchards such as

apple, grape, watermelon, and citrus.

According to the Agricultural Export Expansion Strategy, the Japanese

government has established the 2025 export target for 27 products, among which

fresh fruits including citrus, strawberries, apple, peaches, and grapes are

projected to have significant growth potential. As the strategy calls for

modernising farm machinery to enhance production and productivity, robots are

regarded as good prospect to help meet these targets.

Shine Muscat grapes to embrace automation

In Japan's Yamagata Prefecture, one of the four main production areas of the

premium grape variety called Shine Muscat, farmers have tested the performance

of XAG R150 farm robot on taking care of their vineyards. Traveling easily

beneath the horizontally arranged grape vines, this highly agile and powerful

autonomous robot can spray bottom-up for grape vines that climbed on overhead

trellis.

The large, seedless Japanese "Shine Muscat" grapes has gained momentum and

widely exported to other Asian countries since 2007. While Japan devotes 1,200

hectares to cultivate these green premium grapes, the growing shortage of

labour in rural area present challenges to meet the export demand.

With a few clicks on mobile app, XAG R150 as a hands-free machine can precisely

spray on the crop and ward off pest insects or diseases. This can not only

mitigate the impact of rural aging and decreased agricultural workforce, but

also reduce adverse health impacts on farm workers who used to bend over with

repetitive motions. "It's like a new type of cure to my back pain, I suppose,"

a vineyard farmer who watched the demo said.

Precision Spray on Sweet watermelon

In Obanazawa, another city of Yamagata Prefecture, XAG R150 was also flexibly

adapted to watermelon farm and used for watering the melon crops in a field

demonstration. The burden of manual spraying and irrigation on slopes have

urged Japanese farmers to seek a new approach.

With strong trafficability on tough terrain, the nimble R150 could readily

drive between ridges of watermelon field. As this self-driving robot agilely

moving forward, water was spread precisely through high-speed airflow from the

embarked JetSprayer system, attached on every leaf surface that needs to be

cared for.  

Japan has a mountainous topography with 60 percent of forest coverage. Because

of the scarcity of arable farmland in Japan, the agricultural industry has

shifted to a quality-based production strategy rather than a quantity-based

model to grow better with less.

In Obanazawa, sophisticated care is taken from seeding, spraying, and

fertilising to nurture a perfect fruit, making watermelon cultivation a

labour-intensive operation with a dearth of intelligent technologies. Nowadays,

it is getting harder to hire sufficient workers to manage the melon fields year

by year, with labour shortage being a long-term trouble to Japanese farming.

As an innovative alternative to manual labour, XAG R150 can follow the pre-set

route on farm to help fruit growers effectively spray crops and water the

field, which reduces the use of pesticides and save water. Watermelons need

precision irrigation during their life cycle, and traditionally drip tapes are

deployed in the field to secure water supply. However, most melon fields have

bumpy terrains and long ridges, making it difficult and time-consuming for

farmers to apply and retrieve those tapes regularly.

Japan aims to raise agricultural exports to 2 trillion yen in 2025, followed by

5 trillion yen in 2030. Since the Japanese government is actively supporting

smart farming technologies through new laws and regulations, fruit growers in

Japan can now expect a scale-up of lightweight farm robots to truly help them

grow high-quality fruits with less input.

SOURCE: XAG

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   Link: http://asianetnews.net/view-attachment?attach-id=400345

   Caption: XAG R150 Unmanned Ground Vehicle working on Japan's watermelon farm