Robotics, AI the answer to dwindling labor population, researcher says
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‘We’re just seeing the start of what artificial intelligence and robotics can do in agriculture.’
This story was originally published by the Florida Phoenix.
Artificial intelligence and robots have potential to boost agricultural production — and their possibilities are only beginning, a University of Florida researcher told the Florida Senate last week.
UF broke ground this month on the Center for Applied Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture at the Gulf Coast Research and Education Center in Hillsborough County.
According to Nathan Boyd, a professor at UF studying weed science and associate director of the center, artificial intelligence will provide a 35% boost to agricultural production, including in Florida, by 2030.
“We’re just seeing the start of what artificial intelligence and robotics can do in agriculture,” Boyd said while presenting to the Senate Committee on Agriculture.
Using AI to target spraying and harvesting crops could allow use of fewer pesticides and streamline processes otherwise done by humans, he said.
“Labor is a critical issue. The reason it’s becoming more of an issue is, number one, we do have aging farm operators — that’s part of it. We also do not have or have a very, very small domestic labor force for agriculture, which means we’re relying on labor outside of our domestic population, and the result of that has been labor shortages. And if you look at population trends here and in other countries, this is going to get worse, not better,” Boyd continued.
As of May 2024, Florida had 9,640 crop, nursery, and greenhouse workers, the second-most in the United States, behind only California, which has more than 10 times as many workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metropolitan area had the highest number in the state and 11th most nationwide.
As of April, Florida farmers paid near the bottom of the nation to field crop workers at $15.71 per hour, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Earlier this year, in the thick of legislative discourse about cracking down on illegal immigration, Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson predicted the effort would not affect farm help. About two-thirds of crop farmworkers in the U.S. are immigrants, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. At the time, Simpson said H2A visas give permission to “the vast majority” of farmers to hire foreign nationals on a temporary basis.
“We have to come up with a solution of, ‘How are we going to continue to grow the food that we do in Florida, understanding that we feed our country in the winter time? How are we going to continue to do that with fewer people?’ So, here comes the robots,” Boyd said.
As technology improves, so do yields and quality of products, Boyd said. Technology can monitor plant health and development.
The technology, although often more accessible to larger growers, can be developed for small growers, according to Boyd.
The Florida Department of Commerce, upon groundbreaking for the center, named agricultural technology as a new target industry. That means the state recognizes it as having a high potential to generate “significant returns on investment through job creation, innovation, and long-term growth.”
Robotic harvesting, a $236 million industry in 2022, is expected to be worth $6.8 billion by 2030, according to Boyd. Agriculture drones are expected to constitute a $18 billion dollar industry in five years, too.
The center at UF will have resources to design and build robots for agriculture, with about 100 employees. In the 2025 state budget, lawmakers dedicated $2.25 million for the center.
Artificial intelligence is becoming a university-wide focus for UF, home to HiPerGator, the most powerful university-owned supercomputer in the U.S.
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com.
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