A BUMPER crowd of almost 100 growers and industry representatives from across Sydney turned out to get a glimpse of a newly developed 'vegie robot' at the Greater Sydney Local Land Services Demonstration Farm in Richmond on Friday.
The workshop, run by Greater Sydney LLS focused on the management of soil borne diseases on vegie farms and finished with the first ever live demonstration of a low cost prototype robot developed by The University of Sydney’s Australian Centre for Field Robotics (ACFR).
Senior Land Services officer Matthew Plunkett said the prototype was designed to benefit small scale farming.
This machine could potentially be a game-changer for growers particularly those in the Sydney basin and while it is in the prototype stage it is a perfect opportunity for farmers and other industry partners to have input into its design and functional capabilities,” he said.
Growers traveled from as far as the Central Coast for the event with Parliamentary Secretary for Natural Resources and Western NSW The Hon. Richard Colless attending on behalf of Minister for Primary Industries, Niall Blair.
The event is part of the The Greater Sydney Local Land Services VegNet NSW project funded by Hort Innovation using the vegetable levy and funding from the federal government.