Crop farming that requires no human input

Drilling completed autonomously at Hands-Free Hectare

A farm in the United Kingdom is the first in the world to successfully plant, tend and harvest a crop without a single person ever setting foot in the field.

From sowing the seeds to picking the grain, human workers were replaced with automated machines operated from a control room.

The project, called Hands Free Hectare, was completed in September 2017 with a yield of 4.5 tons of barley, according to news releases.

The automated farm was a joint venture by Harper Adams University in Shropshire, England, and Precision Decisions, a farming specialist company in York.

Many experts agree that automation technology has been available for some time now, but in recent years its implementation has been accelerated by decreasing costs and changing demographics in the workforce.

“The rising cost of labour is a huge driver in the field of agriculture technology,” explained Matt Nielsen of Autonomous Solutions.