The contribution of Horticulture 4.0 innovations to more sustainable horticulture

Abstract

Robotics, artificial intelligence (AI) and sensor-based solutions offer the opportunity to meet the current challenges in horticulture. To accelerate the integration of these technologies in the horticultural sector, the German Ministry of Agriculture established the funding priority Horticulture 4.0. Twelve research and development (R&D) and a networking and transfer project are funded to ensure international competitiveness and increase sustainability. This paper focuses on potential digital applications to be implemented in horticultural farms and analyses the technologies at the meta level by literature review and qualitative research. First, the 4.0 technologies based in the R&D projects are classified according to Industry 4.0 visions and systemized by degree of digital assistance. Six projects focus on a complete automation of production steps in horticulture, four of them on intelligent pest management. Thus, a use case “Digital insect trap” was established with automated detection and counting of insect pests and a digital assistance system for pest management. The results of these analyses provide a basis for future research on technology assessment. The impacts of this use case on sustainability of horticultural production are identified. There are various technical and economic effects on farm management, e.g. investment costs, reduced working time, live pest monitoring without delay and pest management on a broader data base. Less use of pesticides and more biodiversity in field and orchard cultivation are identified as potential ecologic effects. There are no indications that the employment in horticultural farms is affected, but the safety of employee's work place when using autonomous systems could be identified as social effects.