Smart lettuce cultivation with automatic fertilizing, yield and harvest period estimation, no more worries about labor shortage

Taiwan, China's head lettuce (also known as iceberg lettuce) is a major export vegetable, with 8,717 metric tons exported last year, mainly to Japan and South Korea as the primary export destinations. However, head lettuce relies heavily on manual labor, and differences in individual field fertilization and management lead to unstable quality. The Tainan District Agricultural Research and Extension Station of the Council of Agriculture, in cooperation with the Mailiao Fruit and Vegetable Production Cooperative, has developed a "smart recommended fertilization and production period and yield prediction system" and introduced labor-saving machinery, hoping to improve the head lettuce production model.

Xie Mingxian, project executor and director of the Yizhu Work Station of the Tainan District Agricultural Research and Extension Station, explained the operation model of the entire R&D system: first, the system estimates the reasonable fertilizer amount, then a fertilizer applicator applies fertilizer and forms beds, followed by planting with a transplanter. Afterward, the system estimates the harvest period and yield, and then a harvester carries out the harvest, forming a continuous operation model. It incorporates the core of smart agriculture, including data collection, introduction of prediction data, big data analysis, and smart decision-making, reducing errors from human judgment.