Pulverizadores Fede is a technology leader in the production of agricultural machinery for vertical crops found, for example, in orchards and vineyards. As such, we are well positioned to contribute to resource-efficient eco-innovative food production, which is not only good for the environment but is also key for the agricultural sector’s competitiveness with a clear European dimension. Cropland covers almost 25% of the EU (4.4 million of Km2) and most of that area is subject to phytosanitary treatment. With the two year H3O project, we bring a completely new generation of plant protection product application devices (sprayers) to market, reducing the amount of product that is released into the environment by 50%. Further, the fine grain adaptation allows to save 38.5% diesel. For a small farmer with 10 hectare of vertical crop this results in product and fuel savings worth 4630 Euros annually. Moreover, the project is meeting key requirements of the EU Directive 2009/128/EC on sustainable use of pesticides and is in line with the food chain industry standard GLOBAL G.A.P.

The DEMETER Project is a large-scale deployment of farmer centric interoperable smart farming-IoT based platforms delivered through a series of 20 pilots across 18 countries (15 States in the EU). Involving 60 partners, DEMETER adopts a multi-actor approach across the value chain (demand and supply), with 25 deployment sites, 6,000 farmers and over 38,000 devices and sensors being deployed and participants involved come from different production sectors (dairy, meat, vegetables, fruit and arable crops), production systems (conventional and organic) and different farm sizes and types, optimising the data analysis obtained across multiple farms. DEMETER will demonstrate the real-life potential of advanced standards-based interoperability between IoT technologies by adapting and extending existing standards into an over-arching Agricultural Information Model, concurrently ensuring security, privacy and business confidentiality across the full value chain in multiple agri-food operational environments. DEMETER will encompass a multi system and multi data source integration considering not only IoT but legacy systems, open data, geographical and satellite information, and in general will provide an open and interoperable data integration model. DEMETER displays how an integrated approach to business modelling and user acceptance can support sustainable farming and food production systems, provide safe food and support farmers in their decision-making in ‘doing more with less’. DEMETER will bring new business opportunities on the farm and in the wider agri-food economy, while concurrently contributing to the safeguarding of Europe’s precious natural resources. DEMETER’s goal is the creation of a secure and sustainable European IoT technology and business ecosystem whose impact could be transformative in the EC food and agriculture sector, and potentially across the world.

OPTIMA will develop an environmentally friendly IPM framework for vineyards, apple orchards and carrots by providing a holistic integrated approach which includes all critical aspects related to integrated disease management, such as i) novel bio-PPPs use, ii) disease prediction models, iii) spectral early disease detection systems and iv) precision spraying techniques. It will contribute significantly to the reduction of the European agriculture reliance on chemical PPPs resulting in reduced use of agrochemicals, lower residues and reduced impacts on human health. OPTIMA will optimize disease prediction models for downy mildew in vineyards, apple scab in apple orchards and alternaria leaf blight in carrots to envisage faster the possibility of disease outspread and developing advanced early detection methods based on spectral imaging and deep learning techniques to precisely localise and quantify the infection. It will evaluate and screen biological and synthetic PPPs for their combined ability to control the selected diseases and weigh the optimum dosage and application timing and identifying and characterize induced host resistance mechanisms to achieve higher and durable resistance. It will enhance and develop three innovative prototype sprayers (for carrots, apple orchards and vineyards) actuating different nozzle types and adopting variable rate control based on canopy characteristics, the pathogen dispersal and disease development. The holistic developed IPM system will be tested and assessed in field conditions with the three selected crops. The advanced sprayer prototypes and the monitoring system will be tested in real-time to record field efficacy and potential discrepancies from the expected effectiveness. OPTIMA will finally, assess health, environmental and socioeconomic impacts of the proposed IPM system in comparison to conventional systems using an extended Life-Cycle approach integrated with Human and Environmental Risk Assessment.