Paloutzian Farms

Paloutzian Farms – Organic Vegetable Farmer

Interview with Fred Ford

I spoke with the owner/operator of Paloutzian Farms for a few minutes at the Saratoga Farmer’s Market on Saturday 1/15/11.  They are a small operation, approximately 40 acres, all vegetables.  Their current method of weed control is to cultivate the soil between the rows of vegetables, and then manually remove the weeds around each plant.   They do this “whenever it is needed”, which is often (>2 per growing season).  She and her sister do most of the work on the farm, including all of the weeding.  They do not use organic herbicides.  When I introduced the idea of a robotic weeding system, she was quite skeptical.  She would not be interested in investing in the technology because it would be too cost prohibitive, but would not go into specifics about how much she spends on labor.  She was also unsure if it could perform as well as a human can.

Hypothesis test:  Are farmers interested in an autonomous weeding system?

Result:  Not likely for small farmers (for this particular one, anyway).

While there may still be value in going after the small farmer, it could be a harder sell due to the lack of resources.  Also the performance of the system would need to be proven before they decide to invest.