SIP Leader: Agricolus S.r.l.
Sector: Carrot/vegetable
Countries Involved: Italy
Partners involved: AGR: SIP leader, SATA
Farmers involved: 3 carrot-growing farms in North-East
Italy, Abruzzo and Sicily, with farms of average 5ha size.
The necessity for sustainability
In agriculture, a need for encouraging digitisation for sustainable development exists. Not only is this useful for risk mitigation, but it also serves the wider purpose of minimising effects of impending climate change. On a more narrow scale, but equally important, small farmers find themselves in unenviable positions. Even though there are thousands of small farms in Europe, they are mostly fragmented and poorly digitised companies.
How will SIP6 address the challenge?
SIP6’s approach to bringing small farmers closer to Agricultural Digital Solutions (ADSs) will involve offering hi-tech services for them. Agricolus is the leader of SIP6 and thanks to SATA, the other partner involved, 3 carrots farms in Italy will be engaged, also through some training on precision farming. Agricolus will provide to the small farms digital technologies available in a single SaaS cloud platform and mobile app (including: satellite imagery, forecasting models, crop scouting, field mapping, prescription maps, Decision Support System). The aim is to digitise farms’ activities on the field, decrease water and fertilisers consumption and the production costs, achieving sustainability goals.
The business model of the SIP 6 will focus on a modular model with monthly or annual subscription fees that depend on the selected services, which can be sold separately or combined in bundles. Additionally, tailored packages will be available to accommodate specific customer requirements. Governance matters will encompass topics such as data ownership, control, rules for data sharing, and power dynamics.
The measurable results expected from SIP6 are reduction of water consumption: ≥15%, reduction of fertilisers use: ≥15% and reduction of production costs: ≥15%