Automated Selective Broccoli Harvesting to increase grower productivity and resillience towards net zero

西兰花是英国最受欢迎的蔬菜之一，即使在今天，收获西兰花也是由季节性工人来采摘和切割成熟的西兰花头。种植者一直面临着长期的劳动力短缺和不断上涨的成本。2021年，由于季节性劳动力短缺，数百万GB的西兰花作物没有收获。2022年，西兰花和甘蓝种植者削减了种植规模，因此将进口更多的西兰花来满足需求--这推高了成本，增加了食品英里二氧化碳排放。世界各地的农民都在寻找自动化收获解决方案。该项目将在2022年采用世界领先的概念验证西兰花收割机进行田间测试，并在2023年进行试生产原型。新的自动化方法将收获整个植物，为从以前被视为作物废物的植物中创造出有价值和营养的食物开辟了可能性。

Broccoli one of the UK's favourite vegetables is even today harvested by seasonal workers who walk in the crop to select and cut only the ripe broccoli heads.Growers have been facing chronic labour shortages and increasing costs.In 2021 £' millions of broccoli crops were left unharvested due to a shortage of seasonal labour UK.For 2022 broccoli and brassica growers have cut back their plantings so more broccoli will be imported to meet needs -- driving up costs and increasing food mile CO2 emissions.Farmers across the world are searching for an automated harvesting solution. This project will take a world-leading proof of concept broccoli harvesting machine to infield testing in 2022 and a pre-production prototype in 2023\.The new automated approach will harvest the whole plant, opening up the potential to create valuable and nutritious plant-based foods from what was previously seen as crop waste.