Maine tomato grower forced to pay back wages after US department of labor investigation

The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered $245,351 in back wages for 117 employees of a greenhouse tomato grower in Madison, Maine, that failed to comply with federal laws…

UK: Seasonal workers to receive free Covid-19 tests on farms

The government yesterday called on employers of seasonal agricultural workers to help keep the nation safe and restrict the spread of Covid-19 by registering for free…

Canada: Webinar on hiring foreign workers

Service Canada Ontario Region will host a meeting on the topic of hiring Temporary Foreign Workers (TFWs) under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP) and the…

aHDB

Labour costs in agriculture stable in 2020

Average weekly earnings for farm workers remained stable during 2020 with minimal growth overall. As at December 2020, average weekly earnings for the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector totalled £429, according to Office of National Statistics data. This was just a £1 increase on December 2019, an…

Fieldwork Robotics raises £675,000 to accelerate development of harvesting robots

Portfolio company Fieldwork Robotics has raised £675,000 through an equity fundraising from existing and new investors.The proceeds will be used to support development of the…

CAN: New supports for agricultural employers for COVID testing

Important information about new supports being introduced for employers of temporary foreign workers in the agriculture, agri-food, fish and seafood sectors to support the…

Hydroponic strawberry cultivation in Huelva increases because of the lack of labor

Huelva strawberry producers have opted more and more for hydroponic cultivation in recent years in response to various factors, including the lack of labor and the…

More investments in southern Italy to promote mechanized harvesting

Two of the objectives that Conserve Italia has set in Apulia to bring production closer to the processing plant are incentives for the farmers closest to the processing site in Mesagne (Brindisi) and a collaboration with the producers organizations, so as to increasingly encourage mechanized harvesting. "There…

"Innovative Bluetooth sensor network delivers improved crop status visibility to growers"

For Agritech company WayBeyond, the solution was simple. Yet they had to question why no other companies had approached the problem in this way before. Their target market: commercial growers, require frequent, and detailed climate data to get the best from their crops. In a greenhouse environment, keeping…

"We estimate that we have saved up to 50% in labour costs by installing the system"

Main Range Orchard, situated in Young in New South Wales grows cherries on approximately 25 hectares. The cherry season runs from mid- November to early January depending on weather conditions. Cherries from Main Range Orchard are exported to Singapore and Vietnam. In 2006 the company bought their first…

"First step in addressing horticulture industry’s ongoing workforce challenges"

AmericanHort applauds the passage of the farm workforce modernization act of 2021 (H.R. 1603), in the House of Representatives this week. The bill passed by a vote of 247-174,…

Webinar: digital labor tracking in greenhouses

Dutch software company Mprise Agriware will host a free webinar on 23 March to discuss the benefits of digital labour tracking solutions in greenhouses. Registration is now open on their website. Labour costs coupled with the availability of skilled labour continue to be one of the primary concerns among…

Photo by Colinda de Beer

Autonomous horticulture with the help of AI, will people soon be redundant?

This year will see the start of the 3rd edition of the ‘Autonomous Greenhouse Challenge’. The challenge is to grow lettuce in a greenhouse ‘completely autonomously and without human intervention’ through the use of AI. The lettuce also needs to meet a high standard of quality and yield. It also has use…

"It’s about shrinking time and space and stretching brains not bodies"

Ecoation Innovative Solutions, a provider of data-driven grower assist technology, and AGvisorPRO, a platform that connects growers with experts remotely in real-time, have signed an agreement to collaborate through integration. Ecoation and AGvisorPRO aim to integrate their platforms to facilitate a…

"Predicting the future without guesswork"

What if you could predict the future of your harvest based on data? What if you could plan ahead and make more data-driven decisions that saves time and takes away the guesswork? Due to a high demand for this type of technology, Grodan recently improved the Yield Forecaster in the e-Gro Essential Package…

Concerns growing as 4,000 seasonal fruit pickers will arrive in Ireland over coming weeks

Experts are expressing their concerns about the possibility that the Irish government’s new quarantine system will come under serious pressure as fruit and vegetable pickers…

New EU project Robs4Crops accelerates shift towards robotics

From farming controllers and smart implements to fully autonomous farming systems, Robs4Crops (a new project) is helping farmers fill labour shortages — shaking up the farming landscape. The Robs4Crops project will accelerate the shift towards the large-scale implementation of robotics and automation in…

Forecasts show that there is no short term end for Australia's horticulture labour shortages

Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) says while the horticulture industry will suffer significantly from labour shortages, there are some opportunities from high domestic demand. A senior industry economist at ABARES, Charley Xia, told this week's Outlook 2021…

Ag Pro Robotics

StrawBot follows harvesters during strawberry picking

Ag Pro Robotics from Watsonville, California, has presented a semi-autonomous strawberry harvesting robot called StrawBot. The machine is designed to support human strawberry pickers, as it can autonomously follow them through the field during harvesting. Although there have been many attempts to develop…

Photo by FarmRoad

Why crop registration is a vital part of your crop management

Crop registration is an essential task to maintain optimal conditions for your plants. Even in a controlled growing environment, conditions vary over time. Changing weather/climate conditions, management practices, biologicals, and interactions of crop cultivars/varieties with their environment are all…

Plant movements and labour post EU exit focus of AHDB webinars

AHDB is hosting two special webinars to explore the impact of the EU Exit on the ornamentals sector. Experts from across the industry will talk about different aspects of the…

One-billion FlexTruss greenhouse supports products sold

This month sees The French company ARaymond celebrate passing the one-billion units sales mark for the FlexTruss greenhouse support product. Launched on the global market in 2014, the FlexTruss was created by ARaymond  to ensure that the support meets the requirements of producers worldwide. Installing the…

NZ: Moving tomatoes into next-gen tech

Waybeyond has launched a purpose-built mobile Crop Registration app for tomato growers, digitizing a time-consuming manual data process. “Those in the tomato business will be very familiar with Crop Registration and the task of collating that information. When we started talking to tomato growers last…