FACULTY FOCUS
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Photo: University of Sydney
Reap what you program
R
Robots can
diversify
the skills
needed
in the
agriculture
job market
and make
the sector
safer and
more
popular.
Robert Fitch
interview by
James Wells
26
obots will diversify the skills required for
agriculture and get more young people back on
the farm, a roboticist and former farmboy says.
Australian agriculture is facing an ageing population
and the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows there has
been a 40 per cent decrease in the number of people
involved in agriculture since 1980. A large component of
that is young people leaving the family farm, as they’re
not interested in the business.
Dr Robert Fitch, a University of Sydney roboticist, says
robots will reinvigorate interest in farming. “Interest in
agricultural robotics is motivated by the need to improve
the processes that will inevitably feed the planet,” Fitch
says. “Technological innovation such as robotics could
save the world’s agricultural industries.”
Here, Fitch tells Campus Review why technology will
entice people back to farming.
CR: Robert, you have said that robotics could save
Australia’s agricultural industries. Why do you
believe this?
RF: I think agricultural robotics is exciting for people
working in agriculture right now. Maybe I’ll answer this
question by starting off with a little bit of my own life
story. I’m a roboticist now, and I’m working in Sydney,
but I grew up in the states – on a farm in Ohio. I was fifth
generation on that land, and the first of those five to say,
‘This is not for me. I want nothing to do with this at all.’ I
think that’s the story for a lot of young people who are
in similar situations growing up on farms.
We see that played out in the statistics. There are
interesting reports from the Australian Bureau of
Statistics about how many people are leaving farms.
A large component of that is young people who are
not taking up the family business. That trend is present
worldwide; it’s not just in Australia. In my case, H[