<p>A Japanese firm said today it would open the world's first fully automated farm with robots handling almost every step of the process, from watering seedlings to harvesting crops.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Kyoto-based Spread said the indoor grow house will start operating by the middle of 2017 and produce 30,000 heads of lettuce a day. It hopes to boost that figure to half a million lettuce heads daily within five years.<br /><br />The farm, measuring about 4,400 square metres , will have floor-to-ceiling shelves where the produce is grown.<br /><br />"Seed planting will still be done by people, but the rest of the process, including harvesting, will be done (by industrial robots)," company official Koji Morisada told AFP.<br /><br />The move to robot labour would chop personnel costs by about half and knock energy expenses down by nearly one third, Morisada added. The pesticide-free lettuce will also have more beta carotene than other farm-grown lettuce, the company said.<br /><br />Robot-obsessed Japan has repeatedly turned to automated workers to fill labour shortages that are projected to get worse as the country rapidly ages.</p>
<p>A Japanese firm said today it would open the world's first fully automated farm with robots handling almost every step of the process, from watering seedlings to harvesting crops.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Kyoto-based Spread said the indoor grow house will start operating by the middle of 2017 and produce 30,000 heads of lettuce a day. It hopes to boost that figure to half a million lettuce heads daily within five years.<br /><br />The farm, measuring about 4,400 square metres , will have floor-to-ceiling shelves where the produce is grown.<br /><br />"Seed planting will still be done by people, but the rest of the process, including harvesting, will be done (by industrial robots)," company official Koji Morisada told AFP.<br /><br />The move to robot labour would chop personnel costs by about half and knock energy expenses down by nearly one third, Morisada added. The pesticide-free lettuce will also have more beta carotene than other farm-grown lettuce, the company said.<br /><br />Robot-obsessed Japan has repeatedly turned to automated workers to fill labour shortages that are projected to get worse as the country rapidly ages.</p>