Cutting the costs of agriculture and at the same time raising its quality, also improving its environmental sustainability. These are the goals of IBF Services, a technological hub born from the public-private collaboration between the Institute of Services for the Agricultural Food Market (Ismea) to Ferrara land reclamation, which from today is strengthened with the collaboration of Leonardo e A2A Smart City. The group led by Alessandro Profumo participates through e-GEOS, a Telespazio and Italian Space Agency company.
The initiative - presented on Wednesday in Rome - aims to develop the so-called "precision farming”. The services offered by IBF range from crop monitoring decision support for business activitiesirrigation need defense against pathogens, up to the provision of maps for seminare e fertilize the fields. The tools used also include information systems for satellite tracking and proximal and remote sensors, which explains the entry of new high-tech partners.
"Investing in research and innovation to face the challenges of the agri-food system allows us to have a clear vision of the future - comments the Minister of Agricultural Policies, Gian Marco Centinaio – Initiatives like this can contribute to the adoption and dissemination of advanced management systems and technical assistance in agriculture on a large territorial scale, projecting the sector into the third millennium for an increasingly quality and cutting-edge Made in Italy”.
Secondo Raphael Borriello, director general of Ismea, “this project will favor a more sustainable growth of the Italian agro-food system. Ismea's participation will ensure that all Italian farms will be able to benefit from these advantages, even those which, due to size, volume of business and training limitations, would not have the opportunity to use them”.
Federico Vecchioni, managing director of Bonifiche Ferraresi, "precision agriculture represents the best guarantee for the final consumer of the quality of the food products and the rational and responsible use of natural resources".
As for the two new partners, Valerio Camerano, number one of A2A, ensures that "the technologies made available by A2A Smart City in the field of connectivity and sensors will provide a valid contribution in terms of innovation and environmental sustainability".
Gianni DeGennaro, president of Leonardo, instead underlines that "from the union between aerospace technology and the agri-food sector, two of Italy's excellences in the world, innovative services will be born for the sustainable development of Italian activities of all sizes, with opportunities on the global market".
