The famous American environmentalist and author’s premonition of a pesticide-fueled climate collapse where pollinators no longer roam is getting closer and closer. Can technology provide a solution to the growing biodiversity crisis? Every once in a while a headline will shout the coming of robo-bees, envisioning a dystopian future where drones, not insects, ‘buzz’ from flower to flower. In 2018 West Virginia University in the US developed BrambleBee, which fertilizes plants using a robotic arm. Israeli technology company Arugga claims to be the first company to commercialize a robot capable of replicating pollination in tomato greenhouses. ‘Polly’, which looks nothing like a bee, has started working in Finland, where the long dark days of winter make it difficult for bees to pollinate crops and so they need to supplement with hand pollination. The robot will now do the hard work and also collect data on plant health, allowing farmers to make informed decisions about treatment. A more recent example can be found in a joint venture between the University of Stirling in Scotland and the University of Massachusetts. They have received funding to build tiny robots that can reproduce the hum of pollinating bees. Dr Mario Vallejo-Marin, Associate Professor of Biological and Environmental Sciences at the University of Stirling, told Investigate Europe that the aim of the project is not to replace natural pollinators. “We’re not looking for a mechanical way to replace what thousands of bee species do around the world.” Rather, he says, the goal is “to understand why it’s important to keep different types of bees.” Credit: AruggaA prototype of Arugga’s ‘Poly’ pollination robot. Bee conservation is a growing concern. Nearly three-quarters of the world’s most staple food crops are pollinated by bees, according to the UN, but numbers are dwindling as industrial agriculture expands and the rampant use of pesticides continues. European beekeepers have warned that colony numbers have declined over the past 15 years, while experts estimate that almost one in 10 wild bee species face extinction in Europe. Dave Goulson, Professor of Biology at the University of Sussex, agrees with Vallejo-Martian that robo-bees can never replace the real thing. “Real bees are very good at pollination, and have been for 120 million years,” he says. “Then why do we think we can do better by making small robots? They are nuts. But people are taking it seriously as an option.” All non-crop plants will not be robo-pollinated, he adds, while the biggest thing insects actually do is not pollination, but recycling. They recycle all kinds of dead material, which, Goulson says, a robo-bee wouldn’t do. It would take trillions of robo-bees to replace all natural pollinators, according to Alan Dorin of Monash University in Australia, a process he describes as unrealistic and financially unfeasible for most farmers. Robo-bees are environmentally damaging to create and dispose of, Dorin says, and can pose serious risks to wildlife.
Support not replacement
Robo-bees may not be buzzing our fields anytime soon, but with the global agricultural robotics market expected to reach $20 billion by 2025, tech-assisted farming that helps the environment is about to take off. UK-based Small Robot Company (SRC) hopes that farmers will use artificial intelligence and robotics to work with the environment and make food production more sustainable. They hope to replace heavy tractors with more environmentally friendly lightweight robots and help farmers reduce costs and inputs such as herbicides and fertilizers. They currently have three robot models – Tom, Dick and Harry – that monitor, process and plant crops autonomously. Tom, for example, scans the field to create a map of where the plants are and what each one needs. This data is fed into an AI advisory model that creates a treatment map that advises farmers on what actions to take. Credit: SRC The Small Robot Company’s ‘Tom’ robot. The SRC says herbicide applications can be reduced by almost 80 per cent with the technology and is due to roll out the products to 50 UK farms later this year. A 2019 crowdfunding campaign secured £1 million, much of which the company says came from farmers, and support for the technology appears to be growing. Tom Jewers was attracted by the prospect of reducing chemicals on his Suffolk farm. “The ability to treat only the plants that need it is really a game changer,” he told Farmers Weekly. Amid rising global prices, the incentives for farmers in the UK – and across Europe – to reduce chemical use are financial as well as environmental. “With rising input costs, farmers and growers are looking to reduce their reliance on a range of products, including pesticides,” Dr Dawn Teverson of the Linking Environment And Farming (LEAF) group told IE via email with industry. Experiments in agricultural techniques are a centuries-old tradition. It was in 1843 at Rothamsted Research, one of the oldest agricultural research institutes in the world, that the first wheat seeds were planted in Broadbalk field in Hertfordshire, England. These seeds were to become the classic long-term Rothamsted experiments, laying the foundations of modern scientific agriculture and establishing the principles of crop nutrition. Broadbalk has been under constant scientific study ever since, helping scientists understand how fertilizers can improve crop yields. This is just one of the ways science is being used to improve food production. Rothamsted plant pathologist Dr Kevin King is working to develop advanced systems to warn farmers about fungal pathogens and help prevent ‘useless fungicide spraying’. Credit: Juliet Ferguson The first wheat seeds were planted in Broadbalk Field in 1843, Fungal pathogens can wreak havoc on crops. King and his colleagues are developing an air monitor to measure the amount of spores in the air. This will help them understand how the pathogen behaves and how to better manage and control it. They relay that information to farmers “with the idea that if a farmer or grower can know exactly what’s going on in their field at any given time,” King says. “Then they can take preventative measures to try to manage the disease.” Credit: Juliet Ferguson An insect trap at Rothamsted Research, one of the oldest agricultural research institutes in the world. The Rothamsted estate is dotted with various insect traps, part of the Insect Survey overseen by Dr James Bell. The work his team is doing now has its roots in research that began in 1964. They use two types of traps, one at 12.2 meters to capture the landscape view of insects flying at that height and shorter traps that give a more detailed picture of the behavior. As in fungal spore research, these traps are used to predict insect pest threats and produce bulletins for farmers. Even from their inception in the 1960s, they were created to reduce the use of insecticides. “We believed in 1964 that if we communicated with farmers, we could actually change their behavior, and that’s exactly what we’re doing today with forecasts and data,” says Bell. But changing behavior won’t be easy. Research Europe’s latest research revealed Europe’s pesticide problem and resistance among farmers, industry and some politicians to support pesticide reduction laws and data collection. Meanwhile, the charity Food Watch recently described a self-reinforcing cycle of pesticide use that is creating fragile agricultural production systems where farmers are increasingly dependent on chemicals. It is not only the diversity of plants, insects and birds that is threatened by today’s agricultural system. So do the farmers themselves, critics argue. “We are seeing fewer and fewer farmers. They have less and less profits,” Green MEP Bas Eickhout said recently. “We see that our rural areas are under threat. In addition, we see the impact of climate change affecting our farmers. We see the loss of biodiversity.” It is possible that technology can play a role in helping farmers break out of this cycle, but it is a small part of a larger need for system change, not a replacement for what nature currently does and has done for millions of years. Free.
