Asparagus harvester

Robotic farm machinery has been developed in the Netherlands that can locate and pick asparagus.

It is expected to be capable of replacing 60 to 75 workers per 40 hectares of the crop. High-tech start-up company Cerescon masterminded the automated harvester in a bid to address a labour shortage in the Dutch asparagus sector, with the vegetable notoriously difficult to pick.

The machines, capable of picking a row of asparagus in one go, will cost around €500,000 (roughly £424,300) and begin operating in some fields as early as next year, claimed Cerescon technical director Ad Vermeer.

Sensors allow each robot to detect where asparagus is in the field, before it uses picking apparatus to remove spears from the ground.

Asparagus: difficult to pick, but a solution may be at hand.