September 13, 2022 • 16 mins
In this episode of "Let's Talk Farm to Fork", we're joined by Iddo Geltner from Arugga AI, who we will be talking to about how their autonomous pollination robots are helping combat employee challenges within the farming industry.
https://www.arugga.com/
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Episode Transcript
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Voiceover (00:02):
Welcome to let's talk farm to fork, the PostHarvest
podcast that interviews people,making an impact in the fresh
produce sector.
We'll take a deep dive into whatthey do and find out how they're
helping to reduce the amount offood lost or wasted along the
farm to fork journey.
But before we get started, didyou know that according to the
(00:23):
UN's food and agricultureorganisation, around 45% of the
world's fruits and vegetables goto waste each year?
If you would like to learn moreabout how you can practically
play your part in maximisingfruit and vegetable supplies,
whether you're a part of theindustry or simply a consumer
visit PostHarvest.Com and tryout their free online course
(00:45):
library today.
Now time for your host MitchellDenton.
Mitchell Denton (00:50):
Hello, and welcome to" Let's Talk Farm to
Fork", the PostHarvest podcastthat interviews people of
interest across the food supplychain.
Today on our show I'm joined byIddo Geltner from Arugga AI, who
I'll be talking to about howthey're autonomous pollination
robots are help combat employeechallenges within the farming
industry.
So with no further delays, let'sget started.
(01:14):
Well, thanks for joining me onthe podcast Iddo.
How are you?
Iddo Geltner (01:17):
Hi, Mitch.
I'm fine.
Uh, it's great to be here.
Mitchell Denton (01:20):
It's great to have you on.
Before we get into it, I justwanted to give you the
opportunity to tell us a littlebit about yourself and what you
do, and maybe a fun fact aboutyourself.
Iddo Geltner (01:30):
Okay.
Uh, I'm Iddo Geltner co-founderand CEO of Arugga.
My background is actuallyphysics and computer science.
Uh, I did PhD in the US studyinglaser interaction with the
matter.
And after that, I had a longtenure in managing R D of a
medical device company, where wedeveloped a product to reduce,
(01:51):
repeat surgeries in breastcancer.
Mitchell Denton (01:54):
Wow.
Iddo Geltner (01:54):
And, uh, that was, uh, previous part of my career
before I joined, uh, the AgTechcommunity.
So, Arugga is my first tenure,my first venture in AgTech.
Mitchell Denton (02:05):
Yeah.
Wow.
And what about that fun fact ofyours?
Iddo Geltner (02:08):
Well, it's fun for me.
I make my own alcohol at home.
I make beer.
I uh, distill alcohol from allkinds of fruits, depending on
the, uh, on the season.
So, uh, that's one of my, uh,hobbies.
Mitchell Denton (02:22):
That's great.
How long have you been doingthat for?
Iddo Geltner (02:25):
Oh, quite a few years.
Maybe five, six.
Mitchell Denton (02:27):
Okay.
That's great.
You you've got it down to a fineart now.
It's, it's pretty good stuffyou're making?
Iddo Geltner (02:32):
Oh yeah.
My friends enjoy it.
Mitchell Denton (02:36):
Good to know.
Good to know.
Continuing on from you tellingus what you do.
Would you mind telling us alittle bit more about the
pollination robot Poly and howyour innovative technology
works?
Iddo Geltner (02:47):
Okay.
So maybe we'll talk a little bitin more detail later about
greenhouse farming and tomatoesand, and how they reach our
shelf.
But The first step for any fruitis a good pollination.
It's like, that sets the, uh,potential of the fruit, how big
it is, how tasty it is.
So in tomatoes, it's kind of aunique pollination for nature.
(03:09):
The flower pollinates itself.
Uh, it's like kind of, uh, Iknow if that's good for the pot,
it's like kind of marrying yourtwin sister, right?
Uh, so, so nature doesn't wantthat.
But, we are not eating naturaltomatoes.
These are not tomatoes that,develop throughout history.
They are, uh, developed byhumans, right?
By selection, processes, andother processes.
(03:30):
So the tomato that we eat today,grown in greenhouses is
self-pollinating, but they donot pollinate almost
spontaneously.
They need an accurate vibration,a calibrated vibration to
release the pollen on thestigma, the female organ.
So, when tomatoes were stillgrown in the field, it was done
by the wind and insects, butthen, uh, when they were, uh,
(03:53):
inserted into greenhouses, thesewere not available.
So people developed all kindsof, mechanical methods to
vibrate the flowers.
And about 30 years ago, theyintroduced bumble bees.
So, uh, these bees that werereared in factories, they were
sent to the growers and placedinside the greenhouses.
But we're doing the firstautomated robotic pollination
(04:16):
robot.
Mitchell Denton (04:16):
That's great.
Iddo Geltner (04:17):
Which is intended for, greenhouse tomatoes.
So the robot drives autonomouslydown the rows of the, plants.
It has cameras on the, bothsides and, uh, using AI based
computer vision, it detectsflowers that are ready for
pollination, with the visualcues, the, the flowers look in a
very specific manner whenthey're ready for pollination.
(04:38):
And then once it detects thoseflowers, it sends air pulse.
To vibrate, the flowers.
These are carefully calibratedair pulses in terms of duration
and frequencies and pressure,uh, in order to get this optimal
pollination and set a high, uh,potential for all these fruits.
Mitchell Denton (04:56):
Yeah.
Great.
You, you mentioned some of theother pollination methods that
have been used previously.
what would you say separatesPoly from other pollination
practices within the foodindustry?
Iddo Geltner (05:08):
So in terms of, uh, good pollination, because
you can pollinate tomato flowersusing, uh, kind of blowers,
right?
But these don't give goodresults because they're not
calibrated in accurate airvibration.
Mitchell Denton (05:19):
Mm-hmm
Iddo Geltner (05:19):
So, other methods which are, you know, give a good
yield and, and taste are usuallyusing contact either by, uh,
vibrating the plants usingvibrators or using the bees,
which touch every flower,
Mitchell Denton (05:34):
Hmm.
Iddo Geltner (05:34):
Our robot does not touch the flowers.
So it drives along the roads andsends air pulses to.
To the flowers without touchingthem.
This prevents spread of virusesand diseases.
And again, it's the firstrobotic pollinator for
greenhouse tomatoes.
We know of all kinds ofdevelopments, not necessarily
for pollination of tomatoes, butthere are all kinds of companies
working on improvingpollination, we're the first
(05:56):
commercial one.
Mitchell Denton (05:58):
Yeah.
No, that's cool.
That's really exciting stuff.
Are there any future modules orapplications for Arruga's
technology?
Iddo Geltner (06:07):
Ah sure.
My partner Eytan Heller, infounding the company, he coined
it.
We wanna be the"Swiss Army Knifefor the tomato grower".
So we, we intend to introduce,uh, additional modules on the
robot.
It's a relatively large groundrobot, so it can carry quite a
lot of weight.
So, uh, we want to eventuallyhave, even five, six modules on
(06:29):
the robot.
Some of them for monitoring theplants and detecting pests and
disease very early on, treatingthem.
But, some are, uh, especiallydirected to, uh, reduce the
labour cost and dependence ofthe grower.
This is the number one majorchallenge of growers around the
world in agriculture in generaland specifically in greenhouses
(06:50):
where the labour cost is thehighest amongst the, uh, various
agricultural sectors.
So we intend to kind of,approximately every year,
release a module that places aspecific task in the greenhouse.
And there are quite a lot ofthem.
Mitchell Denton (07:06):
Mm, mm.
That's real exciting.
So then what would you say isthe biggest challenge your team
has encountered so far with yourinnovative products and how did
you overcome it?
Iddo Geltner (07:17):
I think that, while growers are very open to
innovation and they seek methodsand they have huge problems, in
agriculture there are hugeproblems.
They, uh, want to see it workingand specifically in pollination
where you pollinate a flowertoday and you see the final
results in about a two monthstime, or it takes about eight
(07:39):
weeks for the tomato tocompletely grow and, and, uh,
become ripe and ready for, uh,harvest.
So the, uh, trials arerelatively long.
And they're not simple.
You need to take care of allkinds of factors affecting the
growth of the tomatoes andtrialing your robot versus bees
or manual methods that exist outthere that the growers use and,
(08:01):
and compare the resultseventually after a few months.
So these are, are costly andlong.
Mitchell Denton (08:06):
Hmm.
Iddo Geltner (08:07):
And, uh, they can be affected by all kinds of
factors like, uh, weather ordiseases.
So it's, it's a challenge.
Mitchell Denton (08:15):
Yeah, definitely.
You were saying at the startthat your background isn't
necessarily in AgTech.
So I was just wondering, nowentering the AgTech industry,
what's the biggest revelationyou've uncovered.
Iddo Geltner (08:29):
So, uh, we had many revelations discovered many
things, but I think, as Imentioned a little bit earlier,
growers on the one hand havehuge problems, so they are open
to innovation.
It was surprising.
My, my initial conception wasthat growers, they don't like
technology.
They wanna stick with what theyknow, but growers around the
(08:51):
world in many, many places, veryopen to technology and want to
hear about it.
They, they eventually wanna seeit work properly and fit into
their operation, but they'revery open to hearing, to
meeting, to testing.
I was very happy to learn that
Mitchell Denton (09:05):
Absolutely.
Yeah.
A lot of collaboration withinthe, AgTech industry.
It's really cool.
So, from where you stand, whatwould you identify as being one
of the biggest pain points inthe food industry?
Iddo Geltner (09:17):
So, from our viewpoint, labour, right?
Labour is the number one problemthat we hear from growers.
It's one of the biggest problemsin agriculture in general, but
most, uh, acutely in greenhousefarming.
Because of unavailability, thecost is rising constantly.
And the fact that, nobody wantsto work in agriculture means
(09:38):
that you don't have enoughworkers to complete the task
that you need.
So that reduces your, uh, yield,your quality.
And that hurts the bottomline.
Mitchell Denton (09:48):
Yeah.
Well, hopefully your Swiss armyrobot will um, help fill the
gaps a little bit.
Iddo Geltner (09:53):
Yeah, ours and others and, uh, step by step.
Yeah.
Mitchell Denton (09:55):
Absolutely.
So has the COVID pandemic forbetter or worse, had any effect
on your day-to-day operations?
Iddo Geltner (10:02):
So on one hand, COVID uh, even stressed further
the need for automation andsolutions like ours because of
problems with labour
Mitchell Denton (10:11):
mm.
Iddo Geltner (10:11):
We didn't have a large effect from COVID it was,
uh, stressful at the beginning,you know, the first few months
to see how things are gonna go,especially in terms of work
conditions and fundraising.
But, the best, the best part ofCOVID is that we were able to do
a pilot with an Australiangrower without even flying to
Australia.
(10:32):
So, we planned to start a pilotin April of 2020.
And, uh, when the skies closedin March, we realised that we
couldn't go there.
And so we got a lot of help fromthe grower's technical team,
because they were very anxiousto see our robots working and,
and thought they could solve alot of their labour issues.
We also found two local guys,who were extremely helpful and
(10:55):
knowledgeable in, uh, we sentthem two robots, disassembled
Arruga-bots.
They managed to assemble them,test them and, and operate the
whole pilot by themselves withour assistance, but from far
away.
Mitchell Denton (11:07):
That's fantastic.
So when it comes to food lossand sustainable farming, what's
the biggest area your team iscurious about and why?
Iddo Geltner (11:17):
In terms of sustainability, I think that we
do use a lot of chemicals andwater.
And so these are challenges forall of agricultural sectors.
So in general, greenhousefarming is, besides use of
energy for heating, is a verysustainable way to grow crops
because there's much morekilograms per metre squared, a
(11:41):
lot less use of water withprobably 80 or 90% less water.
And a lot less chemicals becauseit's more, it's a more protected
environment.
And so I think that keeping theplants healthy, you know,
preventing pest and disease andstresses is probably the most
important thing in terms ofsustainability.
Robots like ours, which drivealong the plants every day.
(12:04):
Uh with cameras and sensors,they can detect these stresses
and pests and diseases early onwhen they just begin to set into
the greenhouse.
And so we can either alert thegrower so he can, he or she can
treat it at a very early stagebefore it hurts the plants and
the yields.
And then the robots caneventually treat these problems
immediately.
(12:26):
Also automating the treatment,reducing, uh, further the amount
of chemicals and keeping yieldshigh.
Mitchell Denton (12:34):
Yeah, fantastic.
Continuing on this train ofthought, is there a particular
group or innovation within theindustry that you're excitedly
keeping a watchful eye on?
Iddo Geltner (12:43):
So of course we're keeping an eye on, uh, all kinds
of, uh, robotics foragriculture.
Mitchell Denton (12:49):
mm-hmm mm-hmm
Iddo Geltner (12:50):
interesting, not only in terms of technology or
even, uh, competition.
It's interesting to see how theyenter the market, how are they
fitting into the environment?
How do growers operate?
In what ways?
It's very, very interesting toknow because, last few years are
the first years that there arerobotics in agriculture, in
(13:11):
general.
There are very few companies outthere which are commercial.
And it's very interesting to seethis coming to life.
Mitchell Denton (13:16):
Yeah.
Iddo Geltner (13:17):
There are other, uh, projects around the world.
I can mention also, uh, Google'smineral project, uh, which is
looking at long term solutionsfor sustainable agriculture and
life on earth.
A lot of interesting stuff goingon these days.
Mitchell Denton (13:31):
Yeah, definitely.
So, what's one thing you wishyou had known when you began
your career in developingautonomous pollination tech?
Iddo Geltner (13:41):
On the one hand, there's a lot I wish I knew, but
then when I entered it, I knewthat I know so little as I
mentioned earlier.
As this is our first ventureinto ag tech.
The first person that we broughtalong was an agronomist, which
is also a good friend of mine.
So we learned, uh, a lot fromhim.
And, uh, he's now an integralpart of the team and we're
(14:03):
bringing all the time, new teammembers, experts in their own
fields.
The fact that we started withouta lot of knowledge at the
beginning was, uh, probably adrawback.
But we did come with a fresheye, critical eye on how things
are being done.
And I think it's good and nowthat we're almost six years in
this project five years, uh,officially when we started the
(14:25):
company.
So, um, it's quite a long, uh,time already.
Mitchell Denton (14:30):
Yeah, definitely.
I mean, starting out, I'm sureit was daunting, but like you
were saying, having that freshoutsider perspective also has
its positives as well.
So that's good.
Well, unfortunately Iddo, we arecoming to a close, but before we
do, I just wanted to ask what isthe major point you really want
the listeners to take away fromthis episode?
Iddo Geltner (14:51):
I think the major point is not only related to
Arugga and our solutions, but inthe fact that there's a huge
challenge in terms of foodproduction worldwide, right?
People are talking about it alot, but I'm not sure that
people really understand howmuch effort is put into bringing
just one tomato into thesupermarket.
(15:11):
So there are more and morepeople in the world, weather is
becoming wacky and people don'twant to work in agriculture.
If any of the listeners everwent into a greenhouse in the
summer.
I'm not sure that he or she willprobably appreciate the fruits
and vegetables on the shelf,but, uh, they won't want to do
the, the work.
(15:32):
So, while we need to producemore food worldwide.
It's under more difficultconditions and, uh, labour
shortage.
And we need to grow itsustainably because until now we
are ruining land, waterreservoirs, and, uh, putting
chemicals into the ground.
So it's, uh, it's a hugechallenge.
And automation is, uh, one ofthe solutions that are badly
(15:55):
needed in this, ecosystem.
Mitchell Denton (15:57):
Definitely, I couldn't agree more.
Well, that's all for today'sepisode of"Let's Talk Farm to
Fork".
Thanks for listening, and thankyou Iddo for joining me today.
Iddo Geltner (16:06):
And thank you for having me.
Mitchell Denton (16:07):
If you'd like to know more about Iddo and
Arugga AI, check out the link inthe description of the episode.
Make sure to subscribe to thepodcast so that you never miss
an episode, and don't forget toleave a review and share with
your friends.
Until next time, you've beenlistening to"Let's Talk Farm to
Fork", a PostHarvest podcast.
Voiceover (16:22):
We appreciate you joining us for this episode of
let's talk, farm to fork, besure to rate, review and
subscribe.
Also, if you would like to learnmore about how you can
practically play your part inmaximizing fruit and vegetable
supplies, whether you're asupplier, consumer, or anyone in
between the farm to forkjourney, visit PostHarvest.Com
(16:45):
and try out their free onlinecourse library today.
Welcome to let's talk farm to fork, the PostHarvest
podcast that interviews people,making an impact in the fresh
produce sector.
We'll take a deep dive into whatthey do and find out how they're
helping to reduce the amount offood lost or wasted along the
farm to fork journey.
But before we get started, didyou know that according to the
(00:23):
UN's food and agricultureorganisation, around 45% of the
world's fruits and vegetables goto waste each year?
If you would like to learn moreabout how you can practically
play your part in maximisingfruit and vegetable supplies,
whether you're a part of theindustry or simply a consumer
visit PostHarvest.Com and tryout their free online course
(00:45):
library today.
Now time for your host MitchellDenton.
Mitchell Denton (00:50):
Hello, and welcome to" Let's Talk Farm to
Fork", the PostHarvest podcastthat interviews people of
interest across the food supplychain.
Today on our show I'm joined byIddo Geltner from Arugga AI, who
I'll be talking to about howthey're autonomous pollination
robots are help combat employeechallenges within the farming
industry.
So with no further delays, let'sget started.
(01:14):
Well, thanks for joining me onthe podcast Iddo.
How are you?
Iddo Geltner (01:17):
Hi, Mitch.
I'm fine.
Uh, it's great to be here.
Mitchell Denton (01:20):
It's great to have you on.
Before we get into it, I justwanted to give you the
opportunity to tell us a littlebit about yourself and what you
do, and maybe a fun fact aboutyourself.
Iddo Geltner (01:30):
Okay.
Uh, I'm Iddo Geltner co-founderand CEO of Arugga.
My background is actuallyphysics and computer science.
Uh, I did PhD in the US studyinglaser interaction with the
matter.
And after that, I had a longtenure in managing R D of a
medical device company, where wedeveloped a product to reduce,
(01:51):
repeat surgeries in breastcancer.
Mitchell Denton (01:54):
Wow.
Iddo Geltner (01:54):
And, uh, that was, uh, previous part of my career
before I joined, uh, the AgTechcommunity.
So, Arugga is my first tenure,my first venture in AgTech.
Mitchell Denton (02:05):
Yeah.
Wow.
And what about that fun fact ofyours?
Iddo Geltner (02:08):
Well, it's fun for me.
I make my own alcohol at home.
I make beer.
I uh, distill alcohol from allkinds of fruits, depending on
the, uh, on the season.
So, uh, that's one of my, uh,hobbies.
Mitchell Denton (02:22):
That's great.
How long have you been doingthat for?
Iddo Geltner (02:25):
Oh, quite a few years.
Maybe five, six.
Mitchell Denton (02:27):
Okay.
That's great.
You you've got it down to a fineart now.
It's, it's pretty good stuffyou're making?
Iddo Geltner (02:32):
Oh yeah.
My friends enjoy it.
Mitchell Denton (02:36):
Good to know.
Good to know.
Continuing on from you tellingus what you do.
Would you mind telling us alittle bit more about the
pollination robot Poly and howyour innovative technology
works?
Iddo Geltner (02:47):
Okay.
So maybe we'll talk a little bitin more detail later about
greenhouse farming and tomatoesand, and how they reach our
shelf.
But The first step for any fruitis a good pollination.
It's like, that sets the, uh,potential of the fruit, how big
it is, how tasty it is.
So in tomatoes, it's kind of aunique pollination for nature.
(03:09):
The flower pollinates itself.
Uh, it's like kind of, uh, Iknow if that's good for the pot,
it's like kind of marrying yourtwin sister, right?
Uh, so, so nature doesn't wantthat.
But, we are not eating naturaltomatoes.
These are not tomatoes that,develop throughout history.
They are, uh, developed byhumans, right?
By selection, processes, andother processes.
(03:30):
So the tomato that we eat today,grown in greenhouses is
self-pollinating, but they donot pollinate almost
spontaneously.
They need an accurate vibration,a calibrated vibration to
release the pollen on thestigma, the female organ.
So, when tomatoes were stillgrown in the field, it was done
by the wind and insects, butthen, uh, when they were, uh,
(03:53):
inserted into greenhouses, thesewere not available.
So people developed all kindsof, mechanical methods to
vibrate the flowers.
And about 30 years ago, theyintroduced bumble bees.
So, uh, these bees that werereared in factories, they were
sent to the growers and placedinside the greenhouses.
But we're doing the firstautomated robotic pollination
(04:16):
robot.
Mitchell Denton (04:16):
That's great.
Iddo Geltner (04:17):
Which is intended for, greenhouse tomatoes.
So the robot drives autonomouslydown the rows of the, plants.
It has cameras on the, bothsides and, uh, using AI based
computer vision, it detectsflowers that are ready for
pollination, with the visualcues, the, the flowers look in a
very specific manner whenthey're ready for pollination.
(04:38):
And then once it detects thoseflowers, it sends air pulse.
To vibrate, the flowers.
These are carefully calibratedair pulses in terms of duration
and frequencies and pressure,uh, in order to get this optimal
pollination and set a high, uh,potential for all these fruits.
Mitchell Denton (04:56):
Yeah.
Great.
You, you mentioned some of theother pollination methods that
have been used previously.
what would you say separatesPoly from other pollination
practices within the foodindustry?
Iddo Geltner (05:08):
So in terms of, uh, good pollination, because
you can pollinate tomato flowersusing, uh, kind of blowers,
right?
But these don't give goodresults because they're not
calibrated in accurate airvibration.
Mitchell Denton (05:19):
Mm-hmm
Iddo Geltner (05:19):
So, other methods which are, you know, give a good
yield and, and taste are usuallyusing contact either by, uh,
vibrating the plants usingvibrators or using the bees,
which touch every flower,
Mitchell Denton (05:34):
Hmm.
Iddo Geltner (05:34):
Our robot does not touch the flowers.
So it drives along the roads andsends air pulses to.
To the flowers without touchingthem.
This prevents spread of virusesand diseases.
And again, it's the firstrobotic pollinator for
greenhouse tomatoes.
We know of all kinds ofdevelopments, not necessarily
for pollination of tomatoes, butthere are all kinds of companies
working on improvingpollination, we're the first
(05:56):
commercial one.
Mitchell Denton (05:58):
Yeah.
No, that's cool.
That's really exciting stuff.
Are there any future modules orapplications for Arruga's
technology?
Iddo Geltner (06:07):
Ah sure.
My partner Eytan Heller, infounding the company, he coined
it.
We wanna be the"Swiss Army Knifefor the tomato grower".
So we, we intend to introduce,uh, additional modules on the
robot.
It's a relatively large groundrobot, so it can carry quite a
lot of weight.
So, uh, we want to eventuallyhave, even five, six modules on
(06:29):
the robot.
Some of them for monitoring theplants and detecting pests and
disease very early on, treatingthem.
But, some are, uh, especiallydirected to, uh, reduce the
labour cost and dependence ofthe grower.
This is the number one majorchallenge of growers around the
world in agriculture in generaland specifically in greenhouses
(06:50):
where the labour cost is thehighest amongst the, uh, various
agricultural sectors.
So we intend to kind of,approximately every year,
release a module that places aspecific task in the greenhouse.
And there are quite a lot ofthem.
Mitchell Denton (07:06):
Mm, mm.
That's real exciting.
So then what would you say isthe biggest challenge your team
has encountered so far with yourinnovative products and how did
you overcome it?
Iddo Geltner (07:17):
I think that, while growers are very open to
innovation and they seek methodsand they have huge problems, in
agriculture there are hugeproblems.
They, uh, want to see it workingand specifically in pollination
where you pollinate a flowertoday and you see the final
results in about a two monthstime, or it takes about eight
(07:39):
weeks for the tomato tocompletely grow and, and, uh,
become ripe and ready for, uh,harvest.
So the, uh, trials arerelatively long.
And they're not simple.
You need to take care of allkinds of factors affecting the
growth of the tomatoes andtrialing your robot versus bees
or manual methods that exist outthere that the growers use and,
(08:01):
and compare the resultseventually after a few months.
So these are, are costly andlong.
Mitchell Denton (08:06):
Hmm.
Iddo Geltner (08:07):
And, uh, they can be affected by all kinds of
factors like, uh, weather ordiseases.
So it's, it's a challenge.
Mitchell Denton (08:15):
Yeah, definitely.
You were saying at the startthat your background isn't
necessarily in AgTech.
So I was just wondering, nowentering the AgTech industry,
what's the biggest revelationyou've uncovered.
Iddo Geltner (08:29):
So, uh, we had many revelations discovered many
things, but I think, as Imentioned a little bit earlier,
growers on the one hand havehuge problems, so they are open
to innovation.
It was surprising.
My, my initial conception wasthat growers, they don't like
technology.
They wanna stick with what theyknow, but growers around the
(08:51):
world in many, many places, veryopen to technology and want to
hear about it.
They, they eventually wanna seeit work properly and fit into
their operation, but they'revery open to hearing, to
meeting, to testing.
I was very happy to learn that
Mitchell Denton (09:05):
Absolutely.
Yeah.
A lot of collaboration withinthe, AgTech industry.
It's really cool.
So, from where you stand, whatwould you identify as being one
of the biggest pain points inthe food industry?
Iddo Geltner (09:17):
So, from our viewpoint, labour, right?
Labour is the number one problemthat we hear from growers.
It's one of the biggest problemsin agriculture in general, but
most, uh, acutely in greenhousefarming.
Because of unavailability, thecost is rising constantly.
And the fact that, nobody wantsto work in agriculture means
(09:38):
that you don't have enoughworkers to complete the task
that you need.
So that reduces your, uh, yield,your quality.
And that hurts the bottomline.
Mitchell Denton (09:48):
Yeah.
Well, hopefully your Swiss armyrobot will um, help fill the
gaps a little bit.
Iddo Geltner (09:53):
Yeah, ours and others and, uh, step by step.
Yeah.
Mitchell Denton (09:55):
Absolutely.
So has the COVID pandemic forbetter or worse, had any effect
on your day-to-day operations?
Iddo Geltner (10:02):
So on one hand, COVID uh, even stressed further
the need for automation andsolutions like ours because of
problems with labour
Mitchell Denton (10:11):
mm.
Iddo Geltner (10:11):
We didn't have a large effect from COVID it was,
uh, stressful at the beginning,you know, the first few months
to see how things are gonna go,especially in terms of work
conditions and fundraising.
But, the best, the best part ofCOVID is that we were able to do
a pilot with an Australiangrower without even flying to
Australia.
(10:32):
So, we planned to start a pilotin April of 2020.
And, uh, when the skies closedin March, we realised that we
couldn't go there.
And so we got a lot of help fromthe grower's technical team,
because they were very anxiousto see our robots working and,
and thought they could solve alot of their labour issues.
We also found two local guys,who were extremely helpful and
(10:55):
knowledgeable in, uh, we sentthem two robots, disassembled
Arruga-bots.
They managed to assemble them,test them and, and operate the
whole pilot by themselves withour assistance, but from far
away.
Mitchell Denton (11:07):
That's fantastic.
So when it comes to food lossand sustainable farming, what's
the biggest area your team iscurious about and why?
Iddo Geltner (11:17):
In terms of sustainability, I think that we
do use a lot of chemicals andwater.
And so these are challenges forall of agricultural sectors.
So in general, greenhousefarming is, besides use of
energy for heating, is a verysustainable way to grow crops
because there's much morekilograms per metre squared, a
(11:41):
lot less use of water withprobably 80 or 90% less water.
And a lot less chemicals becauseit's more, it's a more protected
environment.
And so I think that keeping theplants healthy, you know,
preventing pest and disease andstresses is probably the most
important thing in terms ofsustainability.
Robots like ours, which drivealong the plants every day.
(12:04):
Uh with cameras and sensors,they can detect these stresses
and pests and diseases early onwhen they just begin to set into
the greenhouse.
And so we can either alert thegrower so he can, he or she can
treat it at a very early stagebefore it hurts the plants and
the yields.
And then the robots caneventually treat these problems
immediately.
(12:26):
Also automating the treatment,reducing, uh, further the amount
of chemicals and keeping yieldshigh.
Mitchell Denton (12:34):
Yeah, fantastic.
Continuing on this train ofthought, is there a particular
group or innovation within theindustry that you're excitedly
keeping a watchful eye on?
Iddo Geltner (12:43):
So of course we're keeping an eye on, uh, all kinds
of, uh, robotics foragriculture.
Mitchell Denton (12:49):
mm-hmm mm-hmm
Iddo Geltner (12:50):
interesting, not only in terms of technology or
even, uh, competition.
It's interesting to see how theyenter the market, how are they
fitting into the environment?
How do growers operate?
In what ways?
It's very, very interesting toknow because, last few years are
the first years that there arerobotics in agriculture, in
(13:11):
general.
There are very few companies outthere which are commercial.
And it's very interesting to seethis coming to life.
Mitchell Denton (13:16):
Yeah.
Iddo Geltner (13:17):
There are other, uh, projects around the world.
I can mention also, uh, Google'smineral project, uh, which is
looking at long term solutionsfor sustainable agriculture and
life on earth.
A lot of interesting stuff goingon these days.
Mitchell Denton (13:31):
Yeah, definitely.
So, what's one thing you wishyou had known when you began
your career in developingautonomous pollination tech?
Iddo Geltner (13:41):
On the one hand, there's a lot I wish I knew, but
then when I entered it, I knewthat I know so little as I
mentioned earlier.
As this is our first ventureinto ag tech.
The first person that we broughtalong was an agronomist, which
is also a good friend of mine.
So we learned, uh, a lot fromhim.
And, uh, he's now an integralpart of the team and we're
(14:03):
bringing all the time, new teammembers, experts in their own
fields.
The fact that we started withouta lot of knowledge at the
beginning was, uh, probably adrawback.
But we did come with a fresheye, critical eye on how things
are being done.
And I think it's good and nowthat we're almost six years in
this project five years, uh,officially when we started the
(14:25):
company.
So, um, it's quite a long, uh,time already.
Mitchell Denton (14:30):
Yeah, definitely.
I mean, starting out, I'm sureit was daunting, but like you
were saying, having that freshoutsider perspective also has
its positives as well.
So that's good.
Well, unfortunately Iddo, we arecoming to a close, but before we
do, I just wanted to ask what isthe major point you really want
the listeners to take away fromthis episode?
Iddo Geltner (14:51):
I think the major point is not only related to
Arugga and our solutions, but inthe fact that there's a huge
challenge in terms of foodproduction worldwide, right?
People are talking about it alot, but I'm not sure that
people really understand howmuch effort is put into bringing
just one tomato into thesupermarket.
(15:11):
So there are more and morepeople in the world, weather is
becoming wacky and people don'twant to work in agriculture.
If any of the listeners everwent into a greenhouse in the
summer.
I'm not sure that he or she willprobably appreciate the fruits
and vegetables on the shelf,but, uh, they won't want to do
the, the work.
(15:32):
So, while we need to producemore food worldwide.
It's under more difficultconditions and, uh, labour
shortage.
And we need to grow itsustainably because until now we
are ruining land, waterreservoirs, and, uh, putting
chemicals into the ground.
So it's, uh, it's a hugechallenge.
And automation is, uh, one ofthe solutions that are badly
(15:55):
needed in this, ecosystem.
Mitchell Denton (15:57):
Definitely, I couldn't agree more.
Well, that's all for today'sepisode of"Let's Talk Farm to
Fork".
Thanks for listening, and thankyou Iddo for joining me today.
Iddo Geltner (16:06):
And thank you for having me.
Mitchell Denton (16:07):
If you'd like to know more about Iddo and
Arugga AI, check out the link inthe description of the episode.
Make sure to subscribe to thepodcast so that you never miss
an episode, and don't forget toleave a review and share with
your friends.
Until next time, you've beenlistening to"Let's Talk Farm to
Fork", a PostHarvest podcast.
Voiceover (16:22):
We appreciate you joining us for this episode of
let's talk, farm to fork, besure to rate, review and
subscribe.
Also, if you would like to learnmore about how you can
practically play your part inmaximizing fruit and vegetable
supplies, whether you're asupplier, consumer, or anyone in
between the farm to forkjourney, visit PostHarvest.Com
(16:45):
and try out their free onlinecourse library today.
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