The winners of the fourth edition of the Italian Agriculture Innovation Awards were announced today. From agricultural robots to hybrid tractors with reversible drive through to food and feed with natural antioxidant properties for dairy cattle, these are just some of the technologies that will be included in the innovation list at the 115th edition of Fieragricola, to be held from 2nd to 5th March.
Twenty-three innovations were selected to each win an Innovation Award – six gold and 17 silver leaves, plus 17 recommendations – assigned this year by VeronaFiere and Edizioni L’Informatore Agrario to products developed in the agricultural sector and launched onto the market in 2021, subdivided into four categories: agricultural mechanics, agropharmaceuticals and fertilisers, zootechnics and renewable energy.
“Environmental and economic sustainability are the two selection parameters regarding innovative technologies applied to agriculture,” said Antonio Boschetti, editor-in-chief of the weekly journal L’Informatore Agrario.
The primary sector is responding to the technological challenge and is marching towards a future that is green in both name and deed in order to implement a real agriculture 4.0 which, in Italy,” Boschetti concludes, “represents a 450-million-euro business with a growth rate of 22 per cent.”
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The award-winning products include: the hybrid tractor, which combines an electric motor with a traditional internal combustion engine; the solar-powered agricultural robot for sowing and mechanically weeding crops; sprayers equipped with sensors able to detect the presence and consistency of foliage and adapt the flow of plant protection product thus limiting its dispersion into the environment and a header for sunflowers that can cut the stubble at any height to optimise the separation of the root from the stem and seeds.
There are also several innovations relating to animal management and welfare, such as the UV-C disinfection system to improve hygiene at the suckling station for calves; the ultrasonic transducer for cleaning water for poultry; the feed line for dairy cows that reduces methane emissions from cattle by 17 per cent; the ventilation system with cold air regeneration for stables and dietary feeds to reduce the risk of milk fever in cows.
Giovanni Mantovani, Director General of VeronaFiere, said: “The Fieragricola Innovation Awards intercept the ongoing evolution within the sector which, with about 900 thousand employees and an added value of almost 33 billion euros, represents two per cent of the national GDP. The 23 Innovation Awards assigned this year prove that Italian agriculture is moving towards a virtuous circular economy capable of producing value.” The 4th Fieragricola Innovation Awards ceremony will be held on Wednesday 2nd March at 1.30 pm in the Nutrition and Sustainable Defence Forum Area (Hall 7).
Source: Fieragricola
