The UK government has opened a £20mn ($26.6mn) competition for agri-tech firms to develop robots and automated systems that can plant, tend and harvest crops, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said on August 3.
The funding targets a structural weakness in British farming, its reliance on seasonal labour that growers increasingly struggle to recruit, by accelerating machines that can take on tasks from sowing seeds to picking fruit. The money forms part of the government’s Farming Innovation Programme and takes total funding available this year for farming research and technology to £123mn, within a pledge to invest at least £200mn in farming innovation by 2030.
Farming minister Stephen Morgan said the funding would put advanced robots and technology into farmers’ hands, easing labour pressures while lifting yields and profits, and called it a step towards the modern, resilient farming set out in the government’s Farming Roadmap.
Firms already developing such technology include Fieldwork Robotics, which has built a raspberry-picking robot and is using state funding to make it more robust for commercial rollout. The competition is open to livestock applications, building on work such as Roboscientific’s project to detect illness in dairy cows early through breath analysis, aimed at catching bovine respiratory disease before it spreads.
The round widens eligibility beyond the previous automation competition, which ran in 2023, to include ornamental plant propagation and monitoring, where the technology could transfer to food-producing horticulture, as well as forestry projects covering tree nurseries, planting and woodland management.
“Robotics and automation are becoming increasingly important tools to help farmers improve productivity and build more resilient businesses,” said Chris Danks, head of agrifood at Innovate UK. Applications opened on August 3 through the Innovation Funding Service.
