Villgro announces a new addition to their investment and incubation portfolio – GRoboMac (Green Robot Machinery Private Limited), a social enterprise that develops farm robotics for harvesting farm produce. The company is currently developing a cotton-picking machine that will be bought by large farmers or FAAS (Farming As A Service Companies), who will rent it out to smaller cotton farmers for harvesting cotton.
Agriculture in India is primarily dependent on manual labour; however, according to a FICCI study between 2004-05 and 2011-12 the agricultural workforce has reduced by 30.57 million people.
Started in 2014, GRoboMac is working to mechanize farm tasks by building smart machinery using 3D vision technology and robotics. The company’s first product is a cotton-picking machine that aims at reducing drudgery and dependency on farm labour while maintaining the quality and speed of human picking. Non-availability of farm labour is the single biggest deterrent for farmers to grow cotton, although cotton is a profitable cash crop.
Read more here and here.