Ekobot announces today that the company has received official field trial results that demonstrate an approx. 6% yield increase compared to conventional cultivation technology with chemical weed control.
The Ekobot robot system WEAI has been tested in cultivation trials in southern Sweden during the 2022 cultivation season. The purpose of the trials has been to demonstrate that the company’s robotic system can contribute to an increase in yield compared to conventional cultivation where chemical pesticides are used to fight weeds. The cultivation trials have been carried out in a Swedish onion farm, where the Hushållningssällskapet and HIR Skåne have been responsible for carrying out and evaluating the cultivation trials. The results from the so-called block trials demonstrate that Ekobot’s robotic system WEAI contributes to an approx. 6% yield increase compared to conventional cultivation technology. The results from the cultivation trials indicate that Swedish onion growers can achieve a considerable increase in productivity by using Ekobot’s robotic system WEAI on a large scale.
Tomas Tauber CTO at Ekopbot comments on the trial results:
– For a couple of years now, we have had as a starting point that our robot system should be able to contribute to an increase in yield. The alternative to a robot, i.e. chemical pesticides are very effective against weeds, but these also have a side effect that causes the crop to be negatively affected in its growth. It feels extremely gratifying that we can now demonstrate that our assumptions regarding the robot’s potential to increase yields are correct.