Apr 24, 2020

Washington state robotic pollination project one of 11 funded

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on April 24 announced $9.5 million awarded to 11 collaborative, multi-state projects to enhance the competitiveness of U.S. specialty crops. The funding is made possible through the Specialty Crop Multi-State Program, reauthorized by the 2018 Farm Bill.

The Specialty Crop Multi-State Program (SCMP) strengthens food safety; seeks new ways to address plant pests, disease and other crop-specific issues; and increases marketing opportunities for specialty crops – fruits, vegetables, tree nuts and dried fruits to horticulture and nursery crops, including floriculture.

Funds are awarded competitively to state departments of agriculture and entities in nonparticipating states within any of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Projects funded through SCMP involve at least two partners located in different states.  Examples of this year’s projects include:

• Recipient: Washington State Department of Agriculture, Olympia, Washington.

Award Amount: $993,836.00

Project Type: Food Safety Advancing Robotic Approaches to Pollination for Improved Yield and Quality in Fruit Crops.

Project description: There is an estimated 180,000 acres (~2,500 farms) of apples planted in Washington (USDA National Agricultural Statistic Services, 2017) alone, contributing to ~$2 billion direct and ~$10 billion downstream economic activities/impact to the state. Another 23,000 acres of apples is planted in Pennsylvania by ~2300 farmers.

Other tree fruit crops such as cherries, and pears also make huge economic impact nationally. Profitability of these crops depends heavily on product quantity and quality – two components that are dependent on efficient pollination during flowering stage.

For pollination, growers currently rely heavily on renting hives of honeybees, which is declining rapidly. Environmental conditions also interfere with the natural pollination process thus causing huge uncertainty in achieving optimal pollination.

The Washington State Department of Agriculture, in collaboration with Washington State University and Pennsylvania State University, plans to develop a robotic pollination system that can lead to efficient and reproducible pollination of tree fruit crops (e.g. apples).

Specifically, the project will focus on; i) developing a machine vision system for identifying and locating blossoms in orchards; ii) determining pollination targets and timing through incorporating horticulture knowledge; and iii) developing and evaluating a pollination end‐effector and overall robotic system.

By the end of the project, it is expected that a prototype and field validation study will provide sufficient information for companies (e.g., collaborator FFRobotics) to develop and commercialize a robotic pollination system. Commercial adoption of this technology will substantially improve farmer’s ability to pollinate optimal amount of crop at lower cost to achieve high yield and quality of fruit crops resulting in a substantial benefit to the tree fruit industry

• The Arizona Department of Agriculture’s collaboration with University of Arizona and University of California Cooperative Extension to advance commercial mushroom production by increasing the use of local agricultural/industrial wastes as production substrates and increasing nutritional value of resulting mushrooms grown on modified substrates and environmental conditions.
• The California Department of Food and Agriculture’s collaboration with the University of California, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, USDA Agricultural Research Service, University of Minnesota and the Organic Center to evaluate the food safety impacts of sheep grazing cover crops, compared to tilled termination of cover crops and winter fallow, before spinach and cucumber.
• The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ collaboration with the University of Florida, the Pennsylvania State University, and the USDA-ARS to study disease resistance and diversity to improve lettuce cultivars against bacterial leaf spot (BLS) through breeding, genetics, and study of the BLS-lettuce interaction.

A full list of grant recipients and their project descriptions is available on the SCMP Awarded Grants page of the Agricultural Marketing Service website.  To learn more about AMS grant funding to enhance and strengthen agricultural systems, visit Agricultural Marketing Service: Grants.