Less than 1% of the Italian cultivated area is managed with Agriculture 4.0, yet the so-called Smart AgriFood solutions, i.e. the use of digital technologies in the agricultural sector, are already worth 100 million euros. This was revealed by a study by the Smart AgriFood Observatory, which explains how digital technology guarantees higher product quality and more efficiency in the supply chain, in a sector that in Italy it is worth 3% of GDP, which however becomes 17% considering all the activities that revolve around it, from transport to trade.
FIRSTonline had anticipated the theme with ainterview with the president of Confagricoltura Mario Guidi, who in 2016 said that "agriculture is the sector that will benefit the most from the spread of broadband and ultra-broadband throughout the country, which today is insufficient, because the Internet is important precisely for those who, like companies agriculture, is decentralized compared to the big cities”. And it also confirms it Andrea Bacchetti, Co-director of the Smart AgriFood Observatory: “For digital technologies to fully unfold their potential, the extension of broadband and extra-broadband is also necessary to rural areas to guarantee the interconnection of the supply chain. Then, sensitivity, competence and propensity to invest on the part of companies are needed”.
The digital first of all it allows more accurate weather solutions: predicting the cycles of nature is crucial for those who cultivate the land, especially in times of climate change. For this there is precision agriculture, which allows data collection through the Internet of Things, Big Data analytics and processing software. Then there is interconnected agriculture, the so-called Internet of Farming, which together with precision farming constitutes theAgriculture 4.0: through the cross-analysis of environmental, climatic and cultural factors, it allows to establish the irrigation and nutritional needs of the crops, prevent pathologies, identify weeds before they proliferate, carry out targeted interventions, save time and resources, affect the quality of the productsas well as improving crop yields and working conditions.
“A market, that of Agriculture 4.0, which in Italy alone is worth around 100 million euros, 2,5% of the global one – he explains Philip Renga, Co-director of the Smart AgriFood Observatory of the Milan Polytechnic -: despite the benefits in terms of cost reduction, quality and harvest yield, the diffusion of these solutions is still limited and today less than 1% of the total cultivated area is managed with these systems“. Systems that could also help protect the recognition of products and exports, which are worth 9% of the Italian total: "Increasing revenues thanks to greater recognition or guarantees, for example with anti-counterfeiting systems or reduction of non-products compliant exported”.
