Background
Hort Innovation is the grower-owned, not-for-profit research and development corporation for Australia's horticulture industry.
Our role is to advance Australia’s $16 billion horticulture industry by investing in research and development, marketing and trade to build a prosperous and sustainable future for growers.
We partner with Australian and international co-investors including government, leading science, technology, and consumer strategy experts to anticipate future challenges and opportunities. Our role is to capture value from the investments we make to benefit all levy payers.
Challenge
Hort Innovation invite innovators, problem solvers, and innovative organisations to collaborate with us in addressing a critical challenge faced by Australian growers, deterring wildlife that poses a significant threat to crop yields.
Challenge Context:
Birds, bats, and other wildlife are a significant threat to Australian horticulture, causing an estimated $310 million annually in losses, according to the South Australian Department of Primary Industries and Regions. High-value crops like cherries, berries, mangoes, summerfruit, table grapes, and prunes are particularly vulnerable due to their attractiveness to wildlife during ripening seasons. Current mitigation methods, including netting and scare devices, are often labour-intensive, expensive, and lose effectiveness over time.
This challenge seeks innovative technologies and solutions that can help overcome this issue in an environmentally friendly way, detecting and deterring wildlife to reduce crop losses while ensuring compliance with wildlife protection laws.
We invite interested partners to submit a one-page proposal outline, including an overview of the approach, project deliverables, timeline, and estimated costs.
Key Success Criteria:
Automation & Ease of Use:
- Should require minimal labour to operate and maintain.
- Ideally, integrates autonomous or smart technology (e.g., AI-driven detection, remote monitoring, automation).
Long-Term Effectiveness:
- Must maintain effectiveness over multiple growing seasons.
- Should not rely on temporary solutions that wildlife may become accustomed to over time.
Cost-Effectiveness & Economic Viability:
- More affordable and scalable than current methods like netting and manual scare devices.
- Offers a strong return on investment for growers by reducing losses and operational costs.
Environmentally Friendly & Sustainable:
- Must not harm wildlife or the surrounding ecosystem.
- Should have minimal environmental impact compared to existing deterrents (e.g., chemical-free, low energy use).
What we aren’t interested in:
- Traditional netting structures.
- Solutions that could harm wildlife.
What's in it for you?
This is a global challenge, and Hort Innovation is willing to collaborate with innovative companies, researchers, universities, and technical solution providers. A successful collaboration could mean funding for the solution through the Hort-Frontier co-investment mechanism. It is important to mention that although the implemented solution must be available in Australia, the implementation can be carried out anywhere in the world.