On 26-27 October, in Wuhan China, two teams from Tribhuvan University of Nepal and University of Peradeniya of Sri Lanka attended the 2018 China Agricultural Robot Competition (CARC 2018) and were granted “Encouragement Award” with their “Robot for Orchard Fruit Harvesting”.

Countries in the Asia-Pacific region face significant challenges in achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In the context of agricultural development, these challenges include persistent poverty, reduced availability of agricultural labour, demographic changes, inefficient agricultural value chains, degradation of natural resources and the environment, and impacts of climate change. Facing all these challenges requires the involvement of and contributions from young people.

The Centre for Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (CSAM) has accorded priority to the role of youth in agriculture and is making efforts to promote the engagement of youth in sustainable agricultural mechanization to address the problem of ageing agricultural workforce faced by many countries, and to bring new energy and enthusiasm for the use of the latest sustainable technologies and practices.

In collaboration with the College of Engineering of China Agricultural University, CSAM supported the participation of the two teams to join the competition as a valuable platform to encourage innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship amongst students in China and other countries to develop robotic solutions for the agricultural sector, to enhance in-depth cooperation among industry, universities, and research institutes, and to accelerate the process of development of smart agricultural machinery and equipment.

The First China Agricultural Robot Competition (CARC) was held in October 2017 in Wuhan, China by National Engineering Degree Graduate Education Steering Committee, China Agricultural Machinery Distribution Association, China Association of Agricultural Machinery Manufacturers and China Agricultural Mechanization Association during the 2017 China International Agricultural Machinery Exhibition.