Miniature drones are being used to pollinate indoor crops as part of research looking at alternatives to honey bee pollination.
Singapore company Polybee is testing its drones at the University of Western Sydney and with the South Australian company Perfection Fresh in trials funded by Hort Innovation as part of a $60 million commitment to pollination research.
Honey bees struggle in covered environments and bumblebees, the gold standard for glasshouse pollination in the northern hemisphere, are not allowed to be imported into Australia.
Pollinating drones
Hort Innovation CEO Brett Fifield said covered cropping was growing rapidly in the horticulture sector and would be key to achieving an industry goal to produce $20 billion worth of fruit and vegetable crops by 2030.
"It allows farmers to manage their crop away from the impacts of weather, climate and also manage their inputs more thoroughly," Mr Fifield said.
"Pollination is a key management tool that farmers [using] protected cropping have to manage, and this research is trying to allow them to do that more effectively, more efficiently and reduce their input costs."
Polybee founder Siddharth Jadhav said the drones would pollinate strawberry and tomato crops for the Australian trials.
The draft from their propellers helps spread pollen between flowers.
Mr Jadhav said this method outperformed bumblebees in trials at one of the largest indoor farms in the United Kingdom last April.
"We achieved a yield improvement of more than 50 per cent compared to bumble bee pollination," Mr Jardav said.
"And this is the time of the year when the price of the produce is highest, and pollination activity is the lowest, so that's the value proposition that we are bringing on board."
Changing the way growers pollinate
The head of the Western Sydney University trial, Dr Patsavee Utaipanon, said blow flies and native stingless bees would also be evaluated in the trial.
She said manual pollination would normally be done with a small paint brush or by shaking the plants to spread pollen between flowers.
"But it's very time-consuming because you have to pick the flower at the right age, and then it is very labour-intensive," Dr Utaipanon said.
Mr Jadhav said Polybee's drones used off-the-shelf technology, but the algorithms driving them also provided highly accurate yield forecasting.
"We don't really see ourselves as a drone company or a pollination company," he said.
"We're all about improving profits, and as a part of our service, we have two main features, one of which is precision pollination and the other is measurement and forecasting."
Growers would benefit by knowing what yield to expect week to week, he said.
"They can price their produce in a more informed way when they work with retailers and aggregators. And on the other hand, this information helps them sort of close the feedback loop on cultivation and make more informed decisions in managing their crops," he said.
Mr Fifield said improving pollination was a priority for the horticulture industry.
"Our industry has provided some really clear signals that this is their priority and therefore it's horticulture innovation's priority," Mr Fifield said.
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