Australia’s horticulture industry is set to benefit from a major innovation in weed management, announced at the Gatton AgTech Showcase.
The Next Generation Weed Management Project - a three-part project being delivered by Applied Horticultural Research, Nufarm, and La Trobe University, and funded by Hort Innovation - aims to transform how growers tackle weed challenges through smarter, more sustainable solutions via adoption of AI-enabled robotics, machine learning, non-chemical options, and autonomous vehicles that weed, plant and spray.
Drilling into the technology elements of the A$30mn project, Gatton AgTech Showcase attendees heard about the project’s focus on real world integration of emerging technologies onto farms and data collection to understand the opportunities more broadly.
This project has been developed to help growers become more productive and support them as they continue to face growing labour and input costs.
Brett Fifield, CEO at Hort Innovation, explained more: “Productivity isn’t just about scale - it’s about strategy. This project is a prime example of how we’re investing in smarter ways to grow. By linking this initiative to the broader productivity agenda, we’re helping growers farm smarter.
“Our 2025 report on horticultural productivity with the Centre for International Economics revealed that automation, and AI and machine learning are two of the powerful drivers that will create a more productive and profitable sector for our growers. At the Gatton AgTech Showcase, this week, growers are being given the opportunity to see some of this smart weeding technology in action, giving them a look to the future – and creating a lot of excitement about its potential along the way.”
The Driving Horticulture Productivity report, found that targeted action in areas such as mechanisation, AI-driven insights, and cost analysis could generate up to A$1bn annually in additional value, reaching A$22bn by 2040.
FarmTech Australia spokesman Richard Gorman said this nationwide grower collaboration will see the latest AI-powered technology thoroughly tested in different crops, climates, soil types and farming systems.
“We are testing them under practical, commercial conditions so all growers can have confidence in the paddock research, which will accelerate the uptake of the best performing precision farming aids.
“Growers are front and centre of every stage of this project so we deliver outcomes that all farmers can benefit from. The aim is to farm smarter, reduce operating costs, improve the productivity of Australian horticulture and remain globally competitive,” Gorman concluded.
This project marks a significant step forward for the industry and is already being designed in collaboration with growers to ensure it is fit for purpose.
The three next-generation weeding projects include Applied Horticulture Research partnering with grower-led groups in Queensland and Victoria to accelerate the adoption of AI-enabled robotics and autonomous vehicles for weeding, planting and spraying.
Nufarm Australia is collaborating with Croplands and Kilter, is developing an autonomous robotic precision spot-spraying system that uses advanced machine learning and green-on-green weed detection to apply microdroplet herbicides directly onto individual weeds.
La Trobe University has partnered with the Northern Territory Department of Agriculture and Fisheries to lead a research initiative investigating Anaerobic Soil Disinfestation (ASD), a chemical-free method of weed and pathogen control gaining traction overseas.
