The Challenge

The world of agriculture is expecting a revolution based on digital transformation and the use of data for sustainability and resource optimization. Through IoT systems and AI based forecasting models it is possible to minimise the use of chemical agents, improve product quality and minimise production uncertainty. The DSS models are able to predict infections and pests indicating risks and allowing optimal planning for treatments. Managing timing is the first step to reduce the number of treatments and therefore maintain the healthiness of production.

At present only a few steps have been taken with respect to this potential. There are a series of barriers to implementation, especially in the context of SMEs:

1. a barrier related to the access to technological systems: SMEs would need to cooperate locally to access large databases;
2. forecast algorithms, in order to be effective, require big amounts of data which, for SMEs, are possible only by data sharing;
3. moreover, farmers are not always willing to share data perceived as sensitive (treatments, pesticides, damages);
4. sustainable practises by specific farmers are too often not well communicated to the market which struggles to give an effective value to the productions that invest in sustainability, lowering the carbon footprint, and improving the working conditions and healthiness of the food.

The Solution

Agrimed aims to create a data exchange network (Data Space) applied to the world of Agriculture 4.0 that allows Smart Agriculture technologies to interact with Sustainability Assessment and Valorization services. It will:

1. allow the sustainable access to agro-meteo data and predictive models (DSS) of pest risk management for farmers;
2. continuous improvement of data analysis models;
3. decrease minimum service cost;
4. turn information into values: elaborate the data into value-added information on the sustainability of local farming.

Business projections – scalability

Market size: €7.2 Billion in EU by 2023.

Segments:

• Farmers
• Farmers associations and cooperatives
• Consultancy companies

Drivers:

• Integrated pest management is compulsory in the EU.
• Climate change.
• Consumers are more sensitive to sustainability.

Monetised model: Sold as a service

Customer relations:

• Delivering ad-hoc technology, consultancy and support for different actors.
• Annual fee: approx. 365€/year (1€/day)

Expected customer increase: +300% in 3 years