Sensus invests in sustainable future with robot

Weed management is a challenging factor for growing chicory. Together with our growers and business partners we work on reducing the use of chemical weed control. To stimulate sustainable farming Sensus stimulates mechanical weed control and has now invested in the FarmDroid robot.

“The crop grows relatively slow, so it takes some time before the plant and the weed is visible. When the plant rows are visible, you normally can act,” says René Schunselaar, manager Agro. This robot sows the crop and remembers the exact location of the seed. It knows where the plant is and starts weeding before the plant and weed are visible. “This spring we start the pilot with the FarmDroid. The robot will sow and manage the weed, and we will compare the practices with a plot the grower has sown and managed in the usual way”.

Groeikracht

Through the open Groeikracht network, a Cosun initiative, growers offer their expertise and experiences of cultivation. Cosun links this to its knowledge of processing and innovation and its contacts within governments, research institutes, interest groups and companies. Together we can improve faster and more efficiently. Groeikracht encourages the use of mechanical weed control. In that program the FarmDroid robot is one of the sub-projects.