A team of F3 undergraduate engineers are partnering with UCANR scientists and Semillero de Ideas to prototype ideas for on-farm innovations designed by farmworkers.
Semillero de ideas is a nonprofit organization based in the Yakima Valley of Washington, where many tree fruits are grown including apples and cherries. The organization has been supporting farmworker innovators to bring ideas to life on-farms that will improve the safety and dignity of farmwork.
The projects on which we are partnering this semester are focused on improving the safety and ergonomics of climbing orchard ladders and laying out large tarps. While these innovations were designed for apple orchards, we are also thinking about ways they might translate to the specialty tree crops of the Central Valley including stone fruit, citrus, and olives.
Photo attribution: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/ | cropped