Robot Farmers

Agriculture 4.0 and the rise of robotic farm hands

For each farmer under the age of 35 in Europe, there are nine farmers over the age of 55. Spain, France, Germany, Italy and the UK all face farm worker shortages in the hundreds of thousands during key harvest seasons. Across Europe, around two thirds of farmers have no successor to take over their farm.

Compounding this problem is the triple threat of climate change, environmental degradation and rising food demands. Farming is facing an uncertain future –– if nothing changes.

A wave of startups is seeking to alleviate these problems using rapidly improving robotic technology to assist farmers to not only automate more work, but also to farm more efficiently, using less chemicals and creating less waste.