The IRTA has presented this project with the aim of achieving, through digitalization, more efficient, competitive and sustainable agricultural farming.
It consists of offering spaces for experimentation and testing of new digital technologies, as well as a data platform and digital services that will be made available to the agricultural and livestock sector and other institutions and technological agents.
The general director of IRTA, Josep Usall, explains that “the main idea is to create spaces for agricultural testing and experimentation specialized in digitalization. And not only in the form of physical infrastructure and experimental fields, but also with digital spaces, through a software platform that will offer data and services to the different agents in the sector. The final objective is to contribute to the modernization and adoption of digital technologies by the agricultural, aquaculture and livestock sector.”
We are talking about agricultural plots and experimental farms, equipped with sensors and digital technologies that will allow testing and validating different techniques and solutions to address the main challenges of the production sector. They will also have an interconnected digital platform that will process the data collected and offer it to producers and technicians, along with various associated services. And a team of people specially trained in these technologies, in their advice and in the transfer of knowledge.
These are tools that allow data to be collected on the ground and processed on a large scale to help in decision-making and improving the efficiency of the production chain. These tools can be key to facing the challenge of feeding a growing population with limited resources and the inexcusable need to do so sustainably.
But to get here, we must solve several obstacles to be able to adopt these technologies in a truly useful way: it is necessary to ensure that they reach all producers, and that they are tested and validated to ensure that the investments will bear fruit. It is also necessary to train the end users of the technologies, so that they can have access to extensive and precise data on field and production conditions, with specialized advice and help in decision making. Overcoming these barriers is the objective of the IRTA Digital Agrolabs.
More information at IRTA.
