An innovative machine, powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI), turns the agricultural world upside down. The so -called Ecorobotix Spotsprayer can combat very precisely weeds around crops, without spraying the crop itself. Farmer Geert Jilissen from Oeffelt is one of the first farmers with such a precision sprayer. “If they had told me a few years ago that I would ride such a machine, I would have declared them crazy.”
The province of Brabant wants to be at the forefront when it comes to reducing the use of pesticides. Deputy Marc Oudenhoven of Agriculture hopes to be able to present his plans to the Provincial States at the end of June. Although that does not mean that farmers themselves are standing still. “AI has also made its appearance in agriculture,” says Geert.
“Almost unimaginable that it is possible.”
He is proud to be at his precision sprayer on an onion field at his farm. “This technique is so special. Almost unimaginable that it is possible. The machine can destroy very specifically weeds instead of spraying the entire field.”
Those places with weeds are found by special sensors, GPS and cards. “It ensures a saving up to 95 percent of the pesticides. That not only saves a lot of money for the farmer, but is also good for the environment.”
In this video, Boer Geert explains how the Ecorobotix Spotsprayer works:
From the tractor, Geert can see exactly how the machine works on special computer screens. “All red points, that is weeds and only sprayed there.”
“As a result, the healthy plants are no longer affected by the pesticides,” he emphasizes. Although Geert also knows that the old spraying machines cannot completely leave. “We still do the basic spraying with the old machine, but after the fight we try it now with this one.”
With all those benefits, it almost seems as if every farmer must have such a precision sprayer as quickly as possible. “It saves a lot of costs for pesticides, but the machine and technology are still expensive,” says Geert.
Technically, the spot sprayer therefore not feasible for many farmers. But where there is a will, alderman Mark Janssen-van Gaal tries to find a way. “We are in conversation with many farmers who pioneer with the latest techniques.”
“We like to inspire other municipalities and the province.”
With a special project, the municipality of Land van Cuijk tries to further expand these examples of pioneers, which ensure an improvement in the quality of the soil. “We should not talk about forbidden, but together with the farmer look at how we can reduce the use of crop protection products.”
By collecting sufficient data when testing the different methods, the alderman wants to show what the effect is. “We want to see if there are subsidies, so that it can be used wider.”
“We would like to take a pioneering role in this,” says Janssen-van Gaal proudly about the project. The municipality is supported in this by provincial and national politics. “They told us that if we get started with this, they would like to think along with us.”
