When Daniel Niceforo talks about technology, his eyes light up. Autonomous vehicles, robotics, infrared cameras, GPS and temperature sensors: “I love it,” he says.  

But Daniel isn’t a tech guy working in a startup in a capital city high rise. He’s a farmer from outback Northern Territory.  

With farms in Katherine, Mataranka and Darwin, he and his brother Ryan are on the forefront of innovation for one of Australia’s favourite fruits – the Calypso mango.  

Niceforo Farms is the biggest supplier of mangoes in the NT and biggest supplier of Calypso mangoes in Australia. Daniel and Ryan’s dad, Nino, started planting mango trees in 1998 and thanks to good succession planning the brothers now run the farm, leasing the land off their dad.  

“We very much believe in technology and automation, and we’ve always embraced it,” says Daniel.  

“We’re building on what Dad has done, and technology is just at that point now where we can really integrate it into our farming.” 

Niceforo Farms is doing everything from using technology for soil sampling, leaf testing and nutrient programs, to using an autonomous unmanned vehicle to mow between rows of trees (they can cover 18km of ground in a day). But their most exciting new innovation is a robotic mango harvester, currently under development in partnership with Central Queensland University (CQU), which they hope will have applications beyond mangoes.  

“We started working with Professor Kerry Walsh from CQU when he was working on a camera system that went through the orchard counting flowers and fruit and used GPS to put that on a map to help with forecasting and yield productions,” explains Daniel.  

“And because he’d developed that camera system, he thought, if we can map it then why can’t we reach out and pick it? That’s how Professor Walsh came up with the idea of the auto harvester.”  

Niceforo Farms has been working on the innovation with Professor Walsh and Queensland company Freelance Robotics for the past four years, forming a new company together called Agricultural Robotics.  

The auto harvester sits on an unmanned autonomous vehicle and uses up to 12 robotic arms to reach through the foliage and gently pick ripe mangoes, saving valuable human labour and protecting workers from injury from mango sap, which can burn when it comes into contact with human skin.  

“It’s nearly commercially ready – we’ve gone from prototype to product – and our vision is for the auto harvester to be used throughout the mango industry and beyond, with potential applications for other fruits.” 

Westpac National General Manager of Regional & Agribusiness, Peta Ward, says the innovation she’s seen from Niceforo Farms is impressive and it’s something she’s noticed on other farms around Australia too. “Farming is often thought of as a labour-intensive industry, but what I see when I’m visiting our agribusiness customers is that many farmers are at the forefront of science and innovation.”  

“Our agribusiness customers are using equipment finance from Westpac to purchase everything from the latest tractors to autonomous robots used for broadacre spraying. It’s all about using the latest technology to increase productivity and improve outputs and I never cease to be amazed by the innovation we see.” 

Ryan and Daniel will continue to innovate and are always on the lookout for how they can improve their operations. Up next, they’re trialling planting two new mango varietals and considering deploying unmanned tractors.  

Before we left the orchard the Niceforo brothers shared a mango fun fact. Calypso mangoes are grown by grafting a branch from a Calypso tree on to the base (the rootstock) of a Kensington Pride mango tree. Therefore, if you plant a Calypso mango seed in the ground, you might be surprised to find the resulting tree will give you a harvest of Kensington Pride mangoes.  

You learn something new every day!