Robots arrive on Europe's farms: a new wave of automation

Naïo Robotics and Kioti are developing autonomous farm machines for mid-sized farms.

France's Naïo Robotics and Kioti's European division have announced a partnership to develop autonomous farm machinery. European agriculture faces a shortage of workers, rising labour costs and environmental constraints.

The new machines move across fields on their own and carry out weeding, tillage and crop care. The bet is placed not on large agribusinesses but on mid-sized farms.

Agriculture is turning into a high-tech industry where the key resource is not the number of hands but the quality of managing autonomous systems.