Contributions of Emerging Innovation Technologies in Horticultural Production for Sustainable Development

Abstract

This paper reviewed emerging innovations in horticulture for sustainable development. It focuses on robotics, sensors, ICT, mechanization and production technology. This technology aims at improving the profitability of fruits and vegetables production globally. The technologies made all production processes from seeding to packaging possible with greater efficiency. Production processes can be robotized to improve the reliable connection to market demands. Sensors are introduced in horticulture using the latest techniques rooted from medical and industrial research. Tomato seedlings can be sorted at a speed of 40,000 piece per hour and measures the full 3D geometric features which appeared impossible when done manually. Innovations in greenhouse horticulture using smart phones can register the location of a pest or disease, classify plants, to measure growth and to control machinery. Nowadays automated guided vehicles (AGVs) are used to carry harvest trollies from the central lane to the sorting and packaging area. Similarly, driving forces that led to innovation in greenhouse horticulture such as cost reduction, value chain, waste production and quality loss, insect pests damage and poor seed quality was reviewed. Finally, the paper emphasizes the contributions of robots in seeding, cultivating, and harvesting crop to a high level of reliability, and quality control that has never before recorded in food production.