Ways That Automation And AI Can Enhance The Agricultural Workforce

Summary

A Forbes contributor piece features Farmblox as one of three companies that use automation to help farm workers, not to replace them.

The article tells how Farmblox began with robots for indoor vertical farms. About three years ago, co-founder and CEO Nathan Rosenberg decided that sector used too much energy, and the company moved to irrigation control, weather stations and tools for specialty crops.

Maple syrup is one example. The industry has some 8 million tapped trees and $4 billion in revenue, and Farmblox lets producers watch for leaks remotely, a job that used to take a great deal of time. The writer describes Farmblox as an “ecosystem of farm automation building blocks”: sensors and controllers that connect to a universal monitor box and track soil moisture, tank levels, water use, pump conditions and the weather.

The article’s point is that these tools add to the existing workforce rather than cut it, which matters in seasonal industries that depend on scarce labor.