What will agriculture of tomorrow look like? This is the crucial question that animated the round table “Ortofrutta Connect”, organised today by JOINFRUIT e RURALL – Rural & Urban Digital Hub at the stand of The Great Italian Beauty a Macfrut
The event brought together key players in the industry to explore The challenges and opportunities of precision agriculture, learning a constructive dialogue on the new frontiers of digital innovation in the fruit and vegetable supply chain. To imagine the future, we started from the present, therefore from the current impact of digital innovations (process, infrastructural, application, hardware and software) on the Italian and international agri-food supply chain, through the Research data from the Smart AgriFood Observatory of the Politecnico di Milano: “We are the benchmark in Italy for understanding innovation trends in the agri-food sector. - explained Andrea Bianchi, Researcher from the Smart AgriFood Observatory, adding that “Since we began estimating the size of the Agriculture 4.0 market in Italy, there has been steady, double-digit growth from 2017 onwards. In particular, over the last year we have observed significant growth in AI technologies, which account for 33% of the solutions launched in the last year, as well as a substantial increase in geospatial technologies (45% of solutions on the market), image processing (19%) and robotics (7%). Over 40% of agricultural holdings have adopted Industry 4.0 digital solutions, and group membership promotes digitalisation (55% of producer organisations compared with 38% of individual holdings). Among the most widely adopted solutions are: monitoring systems (64%), connected machinery (62%), and mapping and telemetry solutions (49% and 45% respectively). Finally, it is becoming increasingly important for businesses to improve their forecasting capabilities, and trends suggest that in the future the main areas of application will concern crop monitoring, automation and workload reduction, water management, crop protection and traceability.” After the overview offered by the Observatory, attention turned to on the practical experience of JoinfruitThe OP of Verzuolo has started an agronomic digitalisation process with the partner Diagram Group, flanked by Rurall e Orobix for the implementation of particularly innovative field and awarding solutions, with a view to strategic synergy between the various partners which could satisfy all needs, even the most cutting-edge ones. In fact, the “Ortofrutta Connect” project, carried out by Joinfruit within the framework of Operational Programme 2024-2026, is centred on Experimentation with AI-based solutions for product quality control in the field.
“For us - explained Bruno Sacchi, Director of Joinfruit – Digitalisation in agriculture is the key to uniting environmental and economic sustainability. Joinfruit's objective is to implement innovative, practical, and easily usable solutions in the daily practice of our farms, which, through better programming of crop interventions and efficient planning of the delivery phase, generate greater value for our producers and offer consumers a guarantee of reliable traceability..”
Matteo Villa, Technical Sales Rurall, touched the data theme, sottolineando come si tratti di un aspetto fondamentale “why data helps us arrive at an increasingly precise result: by combining data from different technologies, we can understand the conditions that cause a specific problem. Rurall supports companies in data collection with simple technological solutions, but the data remains an asset of the companies that produce it.”
The CEO by Oròbix, Pietro Rota, spoke instead of intelligent orchards, or how AI can support agronomists in the daily management of the plant's phenological stages: from the estimation of the floral load, to fruit counting and colour analysis, through to yield estimation and the evaluation of size and quality during ripening and pre-harvest. “Today, farmers face new challenges: increasing competitiveness, climate variability, the need to optimise resources and reduce environmental impact. In this context, Artificial Intelligence emerges as a fundamental ally in making agricultural processes more efficient and sustainable.”
To conclude the interesting comparison on the potential of technology for improve productivity, sustainability and profitability in agriculture, Aurora Cavallo, Condifesa Cuneo Director, who explained how “La insurance policy of the future It will not be limited to simply guaranteeing financial compensation, but must anticipate and respond to the needs of policyholders. Technology plays a fundamental role in preparing tailored solutions. Insurtech, a term combining “insurance” and “technology”, is emerging as a significant force for driving innovation in the sector. The use of Big Data also represents a great opportunity for the insurance sector: these large volumes of information can be used to better understand risks, optimise policies, and improve resource management..”
“This experience – concludes Sacchi – it started with a focus on apples, the OP's first product, but we envisage further development in the near future on other strategic crops for our organisation. I also want to stress that data is an asset that should not be confined within the company's perimeter, but used to grow the entire system.”
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