SmartCatalonia promotes the benefits of advanced digital technologies in the agri-food industry

25/03/2019

Attendees to the conference in Mollerussa got to know several real cases of agricultural technification, such as the sensorized control of crops, precision agriculture managed with drones or smart farms.

The Teatre l’Amistat, in Mollerussa, hosted a meeting organized by SmartCatalonia and the municipality of Lleida on March 21st which aimed at analyzing the advantages of applying new technologies in the agri-food sector. The attendees discovered several projects that are already taking place in Catalonia, as well as the challenges and opportunities offered to this sector by technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT) and smart drones.

Daniel Marco, director of the SmartCatalonia strategy by the Government of Catalonia, welcomed the attendees highlighting the importance of meetings like this to make it easier for the agribusiness sector to find the right technological tools that help achieve a high quality, more efficient and more sustainable production. The mayor of Mollerussa, Marc Solsona, emphasized that both the city and Catalonia are pioneering ecosystems, ready and equipped for the application of advanced digital technologies, as demonstrated by the Mollerussa SmartLab program, which has already implemented 7 pilot tests in a real city environment.

To start the technical talks, Rosa Paradell, director of Innovation Business Development at the i2CAT Foundation, introduced attendees to the main concepts of the Internet of Things. Immediately after, the companies of the IoT Catalan Alliance Agrifood Alternative Technologies, Electronic Systems Progress and OPP Group, as well as Agromapping and AEROFOR, members of the Catalonia Smart Drones cluster, presented success cases, products and solutions based on the IoT and drones that allow for the optimization of crop management and control thanks to sensors, the cloud or mobile applications.

The agri-food sector also had its space during the meeting. The Catalan organization Comunitat de Tecnologies de la Producció Agroalimentària (COTPA), which already works on various projects in which technologies based on the Internet of Things improve the productivity and efficiency of extensive crops or Catalan farms, exposed some of the most innovative experiences COTPA is working on.

The SmartCatalonia initiatives

The IoT Catalan Alliance and Catalonia Smart Drones are Catalan clusters promoted by the Generalitat de Catalunya which develop and implement technological solutions based on the Internet of Things and drones. Its main objectives are to foster collaboration between companies, technology centers and other entities, publicize the advantages and opportunities of these new technologies, conduct technological surveillance to detect opportunities, participate in fairs to publicize the solutions of its members at an international scale, and carry out activities that dynamize both sectors in Catalonia.