The transition to automation in UK crop growing
In July 2022 the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) published its review of automation in horticulture in which Professor Simon Pearson, Director of The Lincoln Institute of Agri Food Technology (LIAT) wrote “ It is encouraging to see the development of automation and agri-technology and sustainable food production being recognised nationally as key drivers within the industry going forward.” With continuing pressures on costs and labour productivity we take a look at the state of the sector and the key barriers to adoption of this new and exciting technology.
The investment landscape
For almost a decade the UK Government has been investing heavily in the development of agri-robotics with various industrial strategies and initiatives including awarding enormous grants to start-ups and research hubs like the Lincoln Institute of Agri Food Technology (LIAT).
In 2018 £90 million was invested via UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) which funds scientific and industrial research to support the agri-tech sector, including robotics and automation. This included projects like the Hands Free Hectare at Harper Adams University and Robot Highways led by Saga Robotics.
The Farming Innovation Programme went on to offer over £270 million in grants via Defra and Innovate UK to a variety of start-ups and R&D initiatives, including Muddy Machines who developed their Sprout robot designed for precision harvesting of crops like asparagus.
Sustainable Farming Incentives
Grant aid is now available to those farm business adopting precision farming ‘actions’ that are now included in the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme. The aim is to help farmers to adopt technology or practices to improve productivity, while benefiting the environment and help build more resilient businesses. The new offer includes grant aid for:
- Variable rate application of nutrients
- Camera or remote sensor guided herbicide spraying
- Robotic mechanical weeding
- Robotic non-mechanical weeding (non-herbicide)
It’s too early to determine the success of this grant aid but it is an indication of the direction that the Government is taking to incentivise automation.
Barriers to adoption
With such huge investment there are undoubtedly some notable technological advancements and intriguing developments but despite this, widespread adoption remains a challenge. Fundamental issues like the cost of purchasing agri-robotic machinery are an insurmountable barrier to the majority of growers even with government grants and funding opportunities. The lack of available capital stops the transition to automation in its tracks so whilst agri-robotics is supposed to address labour shortages, they aren’t yet cost effective.
For developers, scalability and commercial viability are a challenge with many agri-tech startups struggling to scale projects beyond the pilot stage. Funding gaps between innovation and full scale commercial viability limits growth and without reliable, field tested solutions, many agri-robots are still in prototype or development stages. Some, like the Small Robot Company went into liquidation in 2024 after investment agreements failed to materialise, acknowledging that the market was not where it needed to be and ultimately halted by the broader challenges of the UK’s investment landscape.
Policy and regulation
The slow adoption of agri-robotics has been made worse by the lack of a clear regulatory framework and coupled with post Brexit funding uncertainties, both long term investment and commercial confidence has been lacking. Unlike other autonomous sectors, there are no specific UK laws governing the use of robotics in agriculture or horticulture.
Despite publishing the British Standard for the safe use of autonomous mobile machinery in June 2023 (BS8646:2023), key issues remain including the lack of awareness that a new Code of Practice even exists. This poses challenges not only to the potential adopters of this technology but also to the insurance companies being asked to cover the liability.
Whilst the Code of Practice attempts to address concerns over the potential risks of using autonomous machinery and how to manage those risks, it does not entirely answer the question of who is liable if a robot malfunctions and causes damage to crops, property or injures someone. Until the law catches up, insurers and businesses are likely to hesitate without those clear legal protections and regulations in place.
New regulatory body
Announced in February 2025, Innovate UK has a new £4.7 million investment to develop regulatory science and further UK innovation which includes establishing an agri-robotics regulatory network. Led by UK Agri-Tech Centre Ltd, their £500,000 grant will, according to their website, “help optimise regulation and standards governing UK agri-robotics.” Coupled with the recent publication of the Code of Practice, maybe the industry will shortly receive the regulatory framework it needs to build confidence and support real expansion.
Employee skills
Fundamental to growth in this emerging market is the ability of businesses to upskill their workforce. The Government itself recommends that the sector should “develop its future skills pipelines and consider ways to attract and retain skilled staff” (Defra review of automation in horticulture published in July 2022).
In its own report, published in April 2024, the UK Agri-Tech Centre states that barriers to accelerating the adoption of agri-tech solutions include a lack of skills and training and whilst several UK universities have introduced specialised courses to equip students with skills in agricultural robotics, little exists for upskilling the existing workforce.
Knowledge transfer
Key to accelerated growth is the willingness for the sector to collaborate, share knowledge and information and agree on best practice. This accelerates progress, reduces redundancy, drives adoption and has the added benefit of promoting standardisation. This is important to ensure compatibility across different systems whereas the lack of standardisation means that many robotic solutions are singular, incompatible and expensive.
If each agri-robotics company reinvents basic components like robotic arms, machine vision systems, and AI-driven navigation it’s not only very costly, but it slows down the development of universal communication, hinders data sharing and inhibits modular components which allow the users to mix and match machinery from different manufacturers.
Standardisation matters
The Hands Free Hectare project successfully planted, managed, and harvested a barley crop without human intervention, proving the feasibility of robotic farming but perhaps more importantly it showed policymakers and investors that standardisation could drive wider adoption of autonomous farming.
Led by Harper Adams University in collaboration with Precision Decisions and industry partners, it was an initiative that demonstrated the potential of standardisation in getting different systems to work together. Showing how integrating multiple robotic systems under common frameworks can work, demonstrated that farmers could modify existing equipment rather than buy entirely new autonomous machines. This paves the way for smaller farms to access agri-robotics, challenging the assumption that automation is only for large-scale farming.
What next?
Whilst funding and investment has undoubtedly stimulated innovation across this sector, take up of these new autonomous machines remains stubbornly slow. Publishing a new Code of Practice and looking to create a regulatory body will bring much needed confidence to the sector along with new training opportunities such as those created here at Ei Operator.
If the industry is to succeed and grow at pace however, the sector must face outwards towards the crop producers rather than just collaborating amongst themselves. According to the AgriTech Centre report, farm businesses still lack knowledge about what is actually out there and available on the market and have little access to business support for adopting new technology. Is it little wonder therefore, that the UK’s agri-robotics sector is still stuck in first gear.
