Technology helps trace pickers during pandemic

AGPICK — a harvest management system developed by South Australia’s Agricultural Picking Technology (APT) to capture harvest activities electronically — is proving its worth as an auditing tool during Covid-19 restrictions.

APT chief executive officer Henrietta Child said AgPick, which captures and reports on field activities and helps managers track, analyse and improve crop outcomes, was also helping producers record picker movements under Covid-19-safe auditing practices.

Raspberry and blueberry producer and strawberry plug plant propagator, Paul Dydula of Paradise Fruits Enterprise Pty Ltd and Paradise Berry Propagators implemented AgPick at his Caboolture, Queensland businesses during Covid-19 lockdown in March. It was a decision which had already paid for itself, he said.

“We were already investigating AgPick to create efficiencies and improve record keeping. Covid-19-safe protocols (including daily temperature checks) accelerated that decision.

Within two weeks, AgPick was installed and keeping track of workers’ attendance and location,” he said.

Ensuring harvests continue in uncertainty

“It’s helped us meet auditing and Health Department requirements easily. Each picker is assigned an ID card.

In the event where we might have two teams working in different areas

— and we have the need to isolate one individual, or one team — we can continue the harvest with the other team.

That would have been so much more difficult with the previous paper-based system.—