Not only ingenuity is born from need. But also engineering. This was the case for Matteo Vanotti who, for his path of innovation, started a few years ago from the need to manage his farm in a more efficient, automatic and digital way. In 2017, Vanotti launched the first digital services platform for agriculture. Over the years, the system evolved, becoming what xFarm Technologies is today: no longer a "simple" start-up, but a company with more than 100 employees operating in Italy and in several other countries such as France, Spain, Germany and Poland, with an office also in Brazil.
ALTIS met Federica Spina, the company's Sustainability Manager, on the sidelines of the lecture she held together with the students of the MSBA Master's Degree, in the module dedicated to sustainability and innovation curated by lecturer and journalist Mauro Bellini.
Let's start with the basics, what does xFarm Technologies do?
It provides services that help in the management of the farm and allow an increasingly intelligent and accurate use of data for decision-making purposes.
Why is it important to digitize in agriculture?
It is an industry that has a long way to go in this field. To date, between 6 and 10% of European farmers use a digital platform. Digitization is therefore a great opportunity because it makes it possible to make available a series of data that help not only to make efficiency, but also to make decisions in a more informed way. With a consequent saving of raw materials and financial resources on the one hand and a positive impact on environmental sustainability on the other.
Is this process also useful for the entire supply chain?
Certainly. From a sustainability perspective, there is an ever-stronger push to monitor and quantify emissions and impact across the entire supply chain.
So you are also working on Scope 3?
As is well known, the most complex aspect on the issue of emissions concerns precisely the calculation of those generated upstream and downstream of the supply chain, which therefore include everything that is outside the direct control of the company. All the actors that contribute to the production of the finished product, however, have an impact that must be tracked, monitored and, possibly, incentivized to be reduced. Our solutions also go in this double direction, of monitoring and improving the impact of indirect emissions, i.e. Scope 3.
How can the impact along the agri-food chain be mitigated?
Generally speaking, without going into the specifics of a single solution, the key word for monitoring impact is traceability. It is therefore essential to arrive at a traceable, immediate quantification available on the platform in order to be processed. Monitoring is therefore the first step, but obviously it is not enough. We need to reduce the impact. On this front, we work first and foremost with our decision support systems, which allow us to act directly on the input, so as to have a positive impact, both environmental in terms of emissions and financial in terms of resources used. In addition, we have activated several projects, including a very promising one concerning regenerative agriculture.
What is it about?
The massive exploitation of the land that has taken place so far in some realities is beginning to show signs of subsidence. Change must be triggered and regenerative agriculture is one of the most valid methods: it is a holistic approach in which various practices are combined to increase the resilience of soils, with the aim of affecting various factors such as biodiversity, water savings, the amount of organic carbon and soil quality. Larger companies are very interested in this approach, and we provide them with digital tools that allow both to quantify the intake of organic matter in the long term, and to monitor the effective implementation of practices, to understand the benefits obtained step by step.
What would you say to farmers who are scared of so much technology?
Technology is a tool that must be considered as such, even when it becomes particularly advanced. It is a support for the farmer's decisions that provides additional elements to be able to make increasingly precise, fast and accurate decisions. It does not aim to replace specialized professional figures, such as that of the agronomist or the farmer himself. On the contrary.
What does all this have to do with the sustainability of farms and the supply chain?
In the agri-food world, there is an increasing push towards reducing impacts, for an accurate understanding of the focal points on which to act. There is also a growing push from a legislative point of view, which requires the adoption of certain requirements, including in terms of reporting and demonstration of the ecological results that are being obtained.
How will AI affect the way you work and farm?
We already incorporate AI elements into some of our models, which enable greater automation and improved farmer decision-making. It is a phenomenon that is already part of our context and will be developed more and more. AI strongly complements the noble profession of the farmer.
Article by Nicola Varcasia