@article{Sinnett:333896,
      recid = {333896},
      author = {Sinnett, Alexandria and Malcolm, Bill and Farquharson,  Robert and Ramilan, Thiagarajah},
      title = {A Moveable Harvest: An investigation into using mobile  platforms for picking apples},
      journal = {AFBM Journal},
      address = {2020-06-02},
      number = {1672-2023-754},
      month = {Jun},
      year = {2020},
      abstract = {Farm businesses producing fruit for the fresh fruit market  require significant amounts of labour, especially for  harvesting. In other agricultural industries, like  cropping, the reliance on labour has reduced because  machines have replaced labour. At the moment, machines do  not replace labour for horticultural businesses supplying  the fresh fruit market, consequently the labour cost is  significant. However, machines, like a mobile platform, may  improve the efficiency of labour or reduce the need for  particular skills. Mobile platforms are not new and have  been a consideration for fruit growers since the 1970s, but  rising costs of labour has increased interest in investing  in them. Research in the United States, Europe and South  Africa into the benefits of mobile platforms has found, in  some cases, that using a platform can improve productivity  and occupational health and safety, but the findings are  inconclusive. The aim of this investigation was to identify  the labour needs for Australian growers supplying apples to  the fresh fruit market and to investigate and form a view  about the role a mobile platform has against other tools  that can be used by growers to assist labour.  This study  has found that the ‘best’ combination of equipment,  machinery and labour to use to assist in the main  production tasks of horticultural businesses depends on the  many and varied characteristics of the business, the  segment of the market the farmer sells into, the operator  and the skills and cost of labour.  },
      url = {http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/333896},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.333896},
}