Precision agriculture is‘a system that provides the tools to do the right thing, at the right place, at the right time.’ (1) Whether it’s irrigating, fertilizing, curing with biological control, the‘right thing‘ is smart agronomic intervention. Targeted, without waste and with maximum efficiency. Through the use of innovative techniques and technologies. An evolution of the primary sector that cannot be postponed. FAO estimates a 70 percent increase in food demand over the next 30 years. And the only way to meet it without exacerbating climate change and the poisoning of the planet is to produce sustainably.
Technology in the field
Ensuring proper care to the individual plant, without wasting water, fertilizer, biological control (most often pesticides) and herbicides is the result of a project that begins with soil analysis (fertility, moisture etc.), develops with sensor placement, monitoring using drones, and ends with automated crop management. Through the use of gps-guided tractors and other agricultural machines, which proceed (even without a driver) to tend the plantation according to the designed guidelines and data sent by the sensors.
The guidelines issued by the Ministry of Agriculture by ministerial decree 22.12.17 outline the application of precision agriculture in three stages:
1) The first phase consists of measuring and interpreting the spatio-temporal variability associated with all aspects of agricultural production by acquiring environmental data in agro-ecosystems and processing them using innovative methodologies. The final product is the delineation of the field into areas with sufficiently homogeneous characteristics,
2) The second stage uses the information collected in the previous stage to adapt agronomic inputs (e.g., water, fertilizer, plant protection products) to specific local conditions, thus differentiating agronomic interventions within the same plot,
3) The third stage is to validate the methodology so as to calibrate management guidelines before its transfer to farmers.
Costs and benefits
Reducing agronomic interventions to only those cases of need, promptly detected, evidently produces savings in resources (water, pesticides). The use of drones, even during the night, saves workers’ work and sleep. Automated tractor-robot routes avoid going over treated areas. The benefits of precision agriculture (or agriculture.4) are varied.
The introduction of Information Technology processes in agriculture, more generally according to ministerial guidelines, produces benefits in terms of
– Optimization of production and quality efficiency;
– Reducing business costs;
– optimization of inputs, minimizing environmental impacts;
– creation of entrepreneurial opportunities such as consulting firms, contracting and innovation brokers.
Practical cases and updated data on Agriculture 4.0 come from Nomisma and Crif’ssurvey of 1,034 Italian farms and 55 contractors. Asked about the perception of innovations in agriculture, the sample is still skewed toward immobility. They believe in Agriculture 4.0 31 percent of respondents, while 42 percent say they lack the resources and skills to engage in it and 27 percent say they are skeptical about the promised benefits.
Investing in innovative agricultural tools in the last three years is 22 percent of the companies surveyed. The most inclined operate in the North in livestock, grain, and industrial crops. They turnover more than 50 thousand euros, farm at least 20 hectares, and have a predominantly young workforce of educated Millennials (18-35 years old), agronomists or agricultural experts.
The costs incurred for the upgrade are in most cases (45%) less than 5 thousand euros, enough to buy software, ECUs, maps and sensors. Only 9 percent of farms invested more than 100 thousand euros to equip themselves with machines of great benefit such as variable metering machines, tractors with assisted or semi-automatic guidance and integrated GPS.
The benefits are extraordinary. The most substantial relates to reducing the amount of pesticides, fertilizer and water (31 percent), reducing environmental impact and improving product quality (24 percent), lowering production costs and increasing yields per hectare/head (20 percent), and a reduction in working time (16 percent).
Concrete examples of such progress are encouraging. Agrisfera, a Ravenna-based cooperative giant with more than 4,000 hectares under cultivation, between land mapping and guidance tools has reduced overlap margins (the repeated pass over already treated areas) by 18 percent, with economic benefits in the range of 200 million annually. Another case, Veneto Agricoltura in Vallevecchia, a farm with 800 hectares of corn, by combining precision agriculture and integrated farming has reduced insecticide use by 90 percent. It has improved and increased production, thus income. (2)
The limits to the breakthrough
Converting to precision agriculture, despite everything, remains a mirage for most Italian farmers. The fragmentation of the industry into small and poorly structured farms, the unwillingness to take on major new investments, the advanced average age of farmers and the lack of training are just a few impediments.
The most serious limitation is the infrastructural deficiency from which all of Italy and particularly rural areas suffer. In Italy only 4.4 percent of the population has a 100 Mbps connection (we are at 24 percent in the EU) and only 41.7 percent at 30 Mbps (76 percent in the EU). In rural areas, only 77 percent of households are guaranteed access to the Internet, but that is not enough.
‘The lack of ultra-widebandcoverage of rural areas is a problem that clearly limits the spread of precision agriculture,’ says Agrinsieme commenting on the Nomisma report. (2) A scenario that currently makes it unlikely that the current 1 percent of farms dedicated to precision agriculture (especially in rice and viticulture) will grow decisively.
Marta Strinati
Notes
1) The definition is from Pierce and Novak ,‘Aspects of Precision Agriculture‘, 1999, Advances in Agronomy, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2113(08)60513-1
2) An interesting episode of Superquark is dedicated to the experience of Centro Veneto Agricoltura.
3) See the January 2019 report prepared by Nomisma on behalf of ‘Grow!’, the national coordination of Agrinsieme, which brings together Cia-Agricoltori Italiani, Confagricoltura, Copagri and Alleanza delle Cooperative Italiane dell’Agroalimentare
Professional journalist since January 1995, he has worked for newspapers (Il Messaggero, Paese Sera, La Stampa) and periodicals (NumeroUno, Il Salvagente). She is the author of journalistic surveys on food, she has published the book "Reading labels to know what we eat".