Labor — or more often a lack of it — is still the number one factor driving farmers’ adoption of automation and robotics solutions, according to panelists, demonstrators and casual attendees at last week’s FIRA USA show in California. But it’s not the only driver.

And while plenty of folks fear the advance of these machines on the workforce, the overwhelming consensus at FIRA was that the ‘bots are making, not taking jobs, at least in agriculture.

Now in its third year (and its first in the Sacramento region), FIRA 2024 offered up a fairly balanced plate of panels, live demos of the machines, and opportunities to chat about the challenges and opportunities for these technologies. Below, I’ve compiled a few standout messages from all these areas in the hopes of providing a glimpse into the future of ag robotics and automation.

Were you at FIRA USA 2024? Drop me a line with your own takeaways.

Market drivers haven’t changed

The market drivers for automation and robotics on the farm haven’t changed. Michael Rose, a partner at The Mixing Bowl, rattled off the usual ones during his presentation of the 2024 crop robotics landscape map: “Herbicide resistant-weeds, the evolving regulatory environment, significant fluctuations in the weather, and labor availability [are] not going away.”

Of all those, labor is far and away the top driver.

“All we’ve heard so far in the last couple days is labor, labor, labor,” noted Rose, adding that crop robotics companies seem to be responding to this need. “They continue to push their product development and drive towards commercialization.”

As evidence, he pointed out that there were nearly 100 new companies on The Mixing Bowl’s landscape since the last time it was produced in 2022. “Interestingly enough, they’re mostly appearing in all segments, so there’s not a heavy concentration on our landscape at just one area.”

Currently, weeding, thinning, and harvest assist machines are the most popular choices for automation and robotics.

A machine retrofit with Niqo Robotics’ AI-powered Spot Spray Technology. Image credit: AgFunderNews

Automation is making jobs, not taking them away

Somewhat related to labor (or, again, a lack of it), numerous FIRA attendees believe ag robotics and automation will create more jobs, rather than take them away as some fear.

“People always think it’s job automation,” said Taylor Farms’ VP of intellectual property and technology Jason Sedano, who instead suggested that automation will create more jobs than it removes.

Using an example from Taylor Farms, he said: “Where we have 3,000 people in the plant, we’re down to 1,000, but we built two more plants to try to get more products to our customers.”

“We didn’t get rid of anybody when we got a transplanter,” added Michael Turkovich, assistant manager at California farm and vineyard Button and Turkovich. “I’m growing my company and the efficiency of my company and producing more with less, or more with the same.”

He noted he ran into similar concerns around jobs when the farm employed a tomato harvester.

“At that time, [we] were hand-picking 2 million tons of tomatoes. We’ve grown that to 11 million tons [with the harvester]. We have created so many more jobs, and they are better jobs, with that venture. The jobs might look different, but they’re usually better.”

farm_ng’s micro-tractor, The Amiga, at FIRA 2024. Image credit: AgFunderNews

Ag must ‘automate then relocate’ the workforce

Turkovich also mentioned the importance of robotics and automation startups also providing “somebody to call and talk to you if something goes wrong.”

He echoed a point made the day before by Western Growers head of innovation Walt DuFlock: “Who’s going to design, deliver and take care of taking care of these bots?” DuFlock asked panelists. “We need more agtech education on this stuff.”

It’s a point that was made at last year’s FIRA USA show as well, when attendees observed the number of engineers and scientists at universities interested in going into agtech.

But it’s not just about attracting more collegiate talent to ag robotics. “Upskilling” agriculture’s existing workers should also be a priority, suggested Constance Brown, general partner at Farmhand Ventures.

“This unskilled workforce is highly skilled and we don’t do enough to integrate them into building solutions,” she noted during a panel.

“What I have noticed [with] the tech is it’s requiring more skilled labor, [which will] put even more pressure on that skilled labor market going forward,” said Turkovich.

“When we add technology, it’s more about [taking] away some of the redundancy and tasks and us[ing] that knowledge and that time of that person to do other things that we can’t automate yet,” said Faith Garrard, executive director of Fresh Ralley’s. “What we’ll continue to do is automate and then reallocate their focus.”

The Verdant Robotics Sharpshooter smart sprayer on display at FIRA USA 2024. Image credit: AgFunderNews

It’s early days still

With agtech funding down in the dumps of late, there’s temptation to write the sector off for some. To be sure, some generalist investors have done that in certain industries (hello, vertical farming), but the overall belief at FIRA was that it’s way too early in the lifespan of ag robotics to make such judgements.

The Mixing Bowl’s Rose took a moment onstage to remind the audience that Cyrus McCormick, widely credited as the inventor of the mechanical reaper in the nineteenth century, took more than 15 years to get his machine developed and into the market. Along those lines, drip irrigation (as we know it) took decades to become what many say is one of the most important technologies of modern agriculture.

Rose’s point was to highlight that we’re still in the early days for ag robotics and automation adoption, and a funding winter isn’t cause for pessimism.

Or as one attendee put it, “A robotic revolution in crop production is likely still some time off but we are seeing a promising evolution.”

At the same time, “when something clicks, it clicks,” Rose added. The first harvester for processed tomatoes, he said, “went from first implementations to 95% penetration in California in five years.”

“At some point autonomy is going to start to be an important part in what people are interested in paying for,” said Gabe Sibley, founder and CEO of Verdant Robotics.* “When we started, we listened to the customer and nobody said ‘We would like an autonomous tractor.’ They said, ‘Help us with all these other problems.’ The sea change may be coming, I would say within the next five years.”

* Disclosure: AgFunderNews’ parent company AgFunder is an investor in Verdant Robotics.

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