Agriculture 4.0: an indispensable digital transformation

The automotive world, already now and for various environmental sustainability, efficiency, and economy, cannot do without electrical transformation.

In the same world, the world of agriculture, which is worth around 11% of GDP, 9% of exports, and around 20% in terms of personnel, cannot do without digital transformation.
Agriculture 4.0: What it is






Agriculture 4.0, as all now identify it, is nothing more than the use of various technologies aimed at improving the sustainability and yield of crops, working conditions, and product quality.



In this regard, the President of Confagricoltura himself, Massimiliano Giansanti, underlining how 2017 was a record year for exports (over 40 billion), also recalled how Italian quality is at the top in the world. And for this, the next government must favor the development of new technologies and adequate infrastructures.

Unfortunately, despite the evidence of definite advantages, investments in digital are still limited. Only 1% of the cultivated area is managed with these systems. Slowly but in continuous growth as many small and medium Italian companies are adapting, also supported by the innovative drive of about 500 international Smart AgriFood start-ups, born in 2011 and 60 are all Italian. This is what was revealed by the Politecnico di Milano with its Smart AgriFood Observatory and by the Rise Laboratory of the University of Brescia.


When we talk about digital transformation in the sector, we also talk about precision agriculture, non-invasive agriculture, and sustainable agriculture. In the first, we work with GPS and with the unlimited data offered by computers; in the second, we use x-rays made with lasers, helpful in analyzing the cultivable areas, and in the third, we focus on crops that grow in water (hydroponic), or the greenhouse without the earth but with nebulized water enriched with mineral salts (aeroponic).
What are the advantages?






The sector is increasingly in need of advanced technology. Just think of tractors in Italy, now real robots, which need personal computers, energy, and continuous data to work. And all this computerization is also necessary to manage farms, better organize warehouses, and coordinate all environmental data in good time. The splendid rural image of Ermanno Olmi's film The Tree of the Zoccoli is part of a vanished past.

Now is the time for companies to make a radical cultural change. A change that leads them to understand the need to have an integrated platform on which all the management data of the company's areas can flow. Data that can be evaluated and processed as a whole to guarantee the optimal management of the company at 360 degrees.



In short, the digital transformation in agriculture is a complex process, indispensable but above all unstoppable. A process that will guarantee benefits that no entrepreneur will renounce, under penalty of exiting the market. Cost reduction, better quality, safe traceability, and environmental sustainability are just some items that digital can guarantee to everyone, even to those agricultural entrepreneurs who may not 'chew' the IT world well.

What then needs, in conclusion, is that everyone, starting with the Government, decide to remove the cultural barriers and resistances that still exist, but which we hope will soon be swept away by the ever stronger wind of progress. Italy needs agriculture 4.0, agricultural entrepreneurs and consumers, and ultimately the planet needs it.