Agricolus

Scenario

In the heart of Umbria, an Italian region rich in agricultural tradition but still poorly digitized, a group of experts from different backgrounds – agronomists, computer scientists, GIS experts and data scientists – grapple with an increasingly urgent problem: agriculture is changing, but the tools available to farmers are unable to meet the new challenges.

Challenges:

• Climate change making seasons unpredictable.
• The need to be more productive, but sustainably and with fewer inputs.
• The growing market demand for traceability and quality.
• The unavailability of advanced technologies for small and medium-sized farms.

From this context, an idea was born: why not develop a digital platform to support farms in making better decisions, capitalizing on tools such as satellite imagery, predictive models, sensors, and mobile apps, but making them easier and more available?

In 2017, from appealing to innovative start-ups and developing partnerships with universities and research centers, Agricolus was born. Its mission is very specific: to convert complicated data into practical tools for those who take care of the soil on a day-to-day basis, with positive impacts on the environmental, economic and social sustainability of the agricultural sector.

Description

Agricolus is an innovative company that develops digital tools for the agricultural sector. Founded in Perugia, Umbria – the “green heart” of Italy it aims to support the work of actors in the food supply chain (Agricolus, 2015).

The idea stems from the founders’ passion for the Umbrian territory, but especially for the land and those who cultivate it, farmers. Hence the intuition to spread innovative agriculture-related technologies to help the sector, which is grappling with multiple challenges: climate change, rising costs, European regulations.

This company offers several solutions: remote monitoring, agronomic management, crop defense, field data collection, supply chain control, weather stations, and machinery interoperability (Sereni, 2023).

They are also provided with anacademy that aims to train and update all agronomists, appraisers, agrotechnicians, and farmers intent on introducing AgriTech tools into their daily work.

Agricolus’ mission is“Making AgriTech sustainable” means supporting farmers and practitioners in optimizing agronomic practices. How do they accomplish this? By making innovative technologies accessible and easy to use in order to achieve the environmental and economic sustainability goals required of agriculture.

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