ROBOTS HELP GROW OUR FOOD
A robot about the size of a small dog is slowly moving in a field through rows of young plants. The robot is equipped with cameras and sensors. It is examining each plant to collect information about the plant's development and to look for signs of disease. Meet Tom, a robotic farm assistant. Its job is to help farmers with their work. Tom is one of three robots being developed by a British start-up called Small Robot Company (SRC). Robots like Tom show us what farming may look like in the future.(lines 1–6)
Sam Watson Jones owns a family farm in Shropshire, England. He is one of the founders of SRC. Watson Jones noticed that there had been no increase in what his farm had produced over the last 25 years. Moreover, the cost of machinery had been going up every year while profits from the farm were going down all the time. Watson Jones discussed this situation with other farmers and discovered that everyone had the same problem. According to Watson Jones they realized that if they wanted to stay in business, they would have to change their methods. That's why they started SRC. He says that their goal is to create efficient hi-tech farming solutions. These solutions will make sure that each plant is cared for individually. At the same time, they hope to reduce costs and increase profits. He adds that this isn't possible today when humans are doing the work by hand or using huge farming machines.(lines 7–15)
Using robots and other hi-tech solutions will surely have a dramatic effect on agriculture. It will get rid of a lot of the hard, repetitive work in farming which today is done by people. However, some experts fear that the increasing use of robots in agriculture will cause many people to lose their jobs.(lines 16–18)