Andela weeding robot wins Agribusiness Award

Andela Engineering & Innovation has the Boerenbusiness Agribusiness Award with their robot for weed control. The company has developed a machine for the mechanical, automatic and autonomous control of weeds in rows. Paul and Sandra Andela received the Agribusiness Award today (Thursday 24 November) from jury chairman Aalt Dijkhuizen.

At the award ceremony, which took place at ABN Amro's head office, Andela Techniek & Innovatie won, in addition to the trophy, flowers and the honour, a media voucher worth €6.500 and a follow-up program offered by ABN Amro. The machine with which Andela won the Agribusiness Award is the Robot Weeder ARW-912. The machine automatically removes weeds in the row. The machine is designed in such a way that the soil is not disturbed, but the weeds are controlled by means of electricity and heat. As a result, the soil remains closed and no seedbed is created where new weeds can germinate.

"Weed control requires considerable efforts in Dutch arable farming," says jury chairman Aaltdijkhuizen during the award ceremony. "The weed robot offers a solution for this. The robot is an example of precision agriculture in practice in which different techniques come together, such as a mechanical arm, camera recognition and algorithms to analyze photos and recognize weeds."

Potency
The machine has a lot of potential according to the jury. Initially for the organic sector, but also for conventional crops. When it comes to weed control, organic arable farmers mainly rely on manual work, and the robot can provide major cost savings there. Conventional growers also face a challenge given the ambition to halve the use of plant protection products.

"It was a very difficult choice for the jury," said Dijkhuizen. "The finalists were very close to each other and the jury was divided for a long time. After much deliberation, we reached consensus on the winner." Other finalists were Kamps de Wild and Piglet Treatment System. Kamps de Wild participated with a system suitable for haulm killing in potatoes and/or combating weeds and green manure. Piglet Treatment System has developed a modular (digital) stable system with the Health System. With this, the company offers a solution at individual animal level for administering and registering vaccines, antibiotics, health monitoring and animal welfare.

Jurphaas Lugtenburg

He is a market specialist in grains and other agricultural commodities at DCA Market Intelligence. He also focuses on onions, potatoes, and roughage. Jurphaas also runs an arable farm in Voorne-Putten (South Holland).

j.lugtenburg @boerenbusiness. Nl

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