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，季节性工人也在收割西兰花，他们只挑选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成本增加。2021年，由于季节性劳动力短缺，数百万西兰花作物没有收获。2022年，西兰花和芸苔种植者减少了种植面积，因此将种植更多的西兰花。进口以满足需求--推高了成本，增加了食物英里的二氧化碳排放。世界各地的农民都在寻找自动化收获解决方案。该项目将于2022年将世界领先的西兰花收获机概念验证进行田间测试，并于2023年进行预生产原型。新的自动化方法将收获整个植物，从而开辟了从以前被视为作物废料的植物中创造有价值和营养的植物性食品的潜力。

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.