Farmers now turning to ‘Weed Terminator’ robot to combat herbicide-resistant weeds caused by GMOs
by: Sarah Landers
NaturalNews.com
Monday, April 04, 2016
The biotech industry has been under a lot of scrutiny recently for its part in causing the development of herbicide-resistant weeds, which are becoming a huge problem for farmers. This resistance, combined with the toxicity of herbicides, means that it is crucial that we find an alternative way to get rid of those pesky weeds – and that’s where Ibex, a.k.a. “The Terminator,” comes in.
Ibex is a new invention created in Britain by Dr. Charles Fox who hopes to revolutionize the way farmers control weeds, according to the Daily Mail. The machine is a rover-like robot that is able to identify individual weeds according to its settings and can navigate in a similar way to self-driving cars in order to reach the location of the weeds and spray herbicide in small patches.
On-board sensors identify encroaching weeds and destroy them one at a time using a robotic arm. This method is a lot more species-specific than broadcast spraying and causes less harm to the environment.
As reported by the Daily Mail, Dr. Fox said, “There is a lack of ways to tackle weeds in difficult to reach areas like hill farms, it’s become too expensive to employ individuals to spray each area and spraying a whole field – grass and everything – is not good for the environment.” The hope is that eventually Ibex will evolve to be able to kill weeds simply using a needle-like jab to the right spot on the weed – making it even less likely to interact with the wrong species.
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