Labour saving on the fruit farm: possibilities listed

Good personnel in fruit farming is scarce as well as expensive. It then helps to organise work in such a way that less labour is required. Applied Plant Research (PPO) investigates which labour-saving techniques growers can now and in the future apply.

Pruning, thinning, picking: all these activities require a large amount of labour. So much that fruit growers are sometimes having difficulties to find sufficient personnel, certainly in case of seasonal work. And on top of that, work is only increasing because many growers are expanding.

What can fruit growers do to reduce the amount of labour on their farm without a negative effect on product quality? And without extra costs? This is what the scientists of PPO worked out. They listed current and future possibilities for growers.

Less labour with different material

Increasing productivity per person results in growers needing fewer workers. This is now already possible. Fruit growers have already taken the following steps:

  • They are using large crates rather than small ones
  • They are using colour mutants: this results in fewer picking rounds
  • They are applying block planting: this enables more efficient operations, e.g. during harvest
  • They are pruning the roots: this leads to fewer pruning hours and higher production at the same time
  • They are using multi-row sprayers: this reduces the number of spraying hours

There will be more possibilities to increase productivity In the future. Column trees (this certainly is long term), straight fields, and better work organisation will enable personnel to work more efficiently.

Robots taking over work

In the longer term robots can take over work. Scientists of PPO calculated that the combination of a spraying robot and a harvest robot reduces labour demand by 40 %. And when a fruit grower would use robots for harvesting, thinning and spraying column trees labour demands are even decreasing by 60 % while maintaining production levels. But these solutions are not to be expected within the next few decades.  

Fruit growers who now wish to save on labour first of all need insight into the labour efficiency on their farm for which registration and management programmes are useful tools. Scientists of PPO Fruit can help growers by supporting study groups.