Digital is also making a strong impact in the world of agriculture and is a candidate to be the tool to increase the productivity of the entire supply chain and also to track and protect Made in Italy. In the days of protest of Sardinian shepherds contesting the collapse in the price of milk, the Smart AgriFood Observatory of the Milan Polytechnic has released the data of the so-called Agriculture 4.0 relating to the whole of 2018.
An inevitable boom, given that the combination of innovation and countryside is quite recent: in the calendar year, the technological solutions applied to crops and livestock have created an added value of 400 million euros, equal to +270% compared to 2017 (when it was worth 100 million), with by now over half of the agricultural enterprises on the national territory (55% of the 766 interviewed by Polimi) which have adopted at least one, improving efficiency, product traceability and reducing times and costs.
Hundreds of interconnected solutions to improve crop yield and sustainability, production and processing quality, as well as working conditions, are already available and concern both precision agriculture and the so-called internet of farming: they have created a value that only in Italy it is worth 5% of the global one and 18% of the European one, thanks to the innovation brought by hundreds of startups, many of which are Italian. A phenomenon therefore that brings benefits not only to agriculture but also to the innovative ecosystem itself.
AGRICULTURE 4.0, STRATUPS ALSO ADVANCE
In fact, in this favorable context, even the startups that offer digital solutions to the agricultural and agri-food sector continue their innovative drive: there are 500 startups in the world, for a total of 2,9 billion dollars in investments raised, active above all in the eCommerce (65%) and Agriculture 4.0 (24%) sectors. Italy ranks ahead of all other European countries in terms of number, but with just 25,3 million euros in funding (equal to 1% of total funding) it still appears marginal in terms of its ability to raise capital.
“The large number – he explained in ainterview with FIRSTonline Filippo Renga, director of the Smart Agrifood Observatory of the School of Management of the Milan Polytechnic - it is due to the great richness and great variety of our agri-food tradition. This generates, even among the youngest companies, interest, skills and passion. Also in this case, while noting that most of these startups are from Northern Italy (primarily Lombardy and Emilia), we have noticed that there is a good ferment also in the South. However, we must hope that the usual long-standing structural problems of our country do not slow it down. Italy has an innovation deficit, there is still too little investment, on a general level, not just in agriculture”.
“Digital innovation is a strategic lever for the Italian agri-food sector, capable of guaranteeing greater competitiveness for the entire supply chain, from production in the field to food distribution, passing through transformation – added Renga -. The success of agricultural enterprises passes more and more from ability to collect and exploit the large amount of data that will be generated, especially to achieve cost control and increase in production quality. However, it should be noted that there is still little clarity among the players in the sector on how to exploit these opportunities; a signal that we need to invest in the creation of healthy skills, beyond fashions”.
“Even in the agri-food sector, the opportunities generated by a strategic valorisation of data are starting to emerge clearly – instead notes Andrea Bacchetti, Director of the Smart Agrifood Observatory -. Il 71% of Agriculture 4.0 solutions today are able to support decisions by leveraging data even with advanced analytics systems and almost half of the farmers interviewed, 45%, are aware of the relevance of the data, but it is not yet clear how to exploit them. Furthermore, correct digital data management is crucial for traceability, on which we are still at the very beginning, while it is already a clear development factor for startups, which exploit them in 85% of the cases analysed”.
“In a market – declared the Founder of Image Line, Ivano Valmori – which continues to assume an increasingly important economic value, a single standard needs to be developed across platforms, which allows the farmer to enter and collect his data only once. More and more apps, web applications and IT solutions are made available for farms. But it is no longer sustainable to think that the farmer can enter the same data in all the applications, which currently do not communicate with each other"
WHAT STARTUPS DO
The global Agriculture 4.0 market is worth 7 billion dollars (double compared to last year), 30% of which is generated in Europe. in Italy theObservatory has mapped 110 companies in the sector (74% established brands and 26% startups) that offer over 300 Agriculture 4.0 technological solutions, with very different roles and positioning along the supply chain. I49% of companies are suppliers of advanced solutions such as the Internet of Things (IoT), robotics and drones, 22% of solutions of data analysis, 16% of machines and equipment for the field, 7% produce electronic components and instruments, while in 3% of cases they are production companies in the agricultural sector. The most frequent solutions are the systems that can be used across several agricultural sectors (53%), followed by those aimed at the cereal sector (24%), fruit and vegetables (24%) and wine (16%). The attention for theinternet of farming, enabled by 14% of the solutions offered: almost 80% of the solutions are applicable in the cultivation phase, 13% support the planning phase, 4% stock monitoring and 3% company logistics.
From a survey conducted by the Observatory on 1.467 farms emerges as Italian companies are increasingly aware of the opportunities offered by the 4.0 paradigm (85% of 766 respondents) and increasingly use solutions oriented towards Agriculture 4.0 (55%). The control of production costs and the increase in production are the most urgent needs for companies, while the needs related to the acquisition, processing and interpretation of data are considered important but not yet a priority. 55% of companies declare that they use advanced machinery or technologies for crop planning, sowing, cultivation, harvesting, and among these, 45% have done so for more than five years. 30% of entrepreneurs are under 40 and a third have a degree, but age and educational qualifications do not significantly influence the adoption of 4.0 solutions, on the contrary, on the contrary, the size of the land and the reference sectors. Under 10 hectares only 25% of companies adopt 4.0 solutions, against 65% of those over 100 hectares.
TRACEABILITY OF MADE IN ITALY
Digital technologies have a great impact on the efficiency and effectiveness of food traceability processes. 30% of companies that adopt digital traceability solutions detect a reduction in data entry errors and the risk of tampering, 27% notice a decrease in the costs required to activate traceability procedures and 21% save time for data collection. Processes and relationships in the supply chain also benefit from these solutions, especially with regard to inventory management costs (15%). the reduction of food waste (14%) and the consolidation of supply chain relationships (13%). 13% of companies have also seen an increase in sales, while 14% highlight the need to focus on solutions to improve certification processes.
The 133 technological solutions for food traceability available on the Italian market intervene in the processes of unambiguous identification, data acquisition, registration, analysis, integration and transmission. 59% of these solutions are still "traditional" (they transform data into digital requiring an important human contribution) and the most widespread are software platforms for data recording, integration and processing (62%), followed by solutions that combine hardware tools and software (30%) and from hardware tools such as IoT sensors and barcode readers (8%). Among the more advanced ones (42%), however, the most used are RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification, 20%), Cloud (19%), Big Data Analytics (14%) and IoT sensors (10%).
BLOCKCHAIN IN AGRI-FOOD
The interest in the application of Blockchain and Distributed Ledger technologies in the food chain is growing: there are 42 international and Italian projects mapped from 2016 to 2018, more than doubled in the last year. These are initiatives which, in 24% of cases, find application in various fields, in 21% they are dedicated to the meat supply chain, in 17% to fruit and vegetables and in 10% to cereals. In 50% of cases, a strong guiding role was found on the part of distribution and transformation actors.
