The first farm in the world, where everything – from sowing, planting, fertilizing, sampling, to harvesting – is done without the slightest human manual involvement, is located in Great Britain and is called ‘Hands Free Hectare’. In this, robots, self-propelled agricultural machines and drones have taken over the job and put humans out of the game.

The farm, located in the village of Edmonton, is a research project of Harper Adams specialized agronomic university and Precision Dynamics agribusiness. This year, for the first time, the farm produced about five tonnes of barley, without the need for a human litter.

The creators of fully automated farming believe that thanks to ‘smart’ technologies, future agriculture will achieve higher yields, helping to feed the growing global population.

“We are the first to succeed in resolving the problem of technological autonomy in agriculture,” said Jonathan Gil, a lead scientist at the farm.

Researchers have used several small agricultural machines, as well as larger ones, such as a tractor and a combine harvester, to which they have adapted electronic and robotic technology in order to become autonomous and work on their own. With the help of GPS, the machines were programmed to perform each specific task, in specific areas, at a specific time. Drones fitted with special handles fly over the field, cutting specimens and transporting them to research farmers.

According to the latter, in the future agricultural machinery will become smaller in size, operate more accurately and quickly and have robotic capabilities.

As for the first robotic crop of barley, it will be used to produce “autonomous” beer, which will be drunk exclusively by those who created the robotic farm. It remains to be seen if they will be happy with the result …