CREA 2022 Congress – Future of agriculture is less input and more digital

The incorporation of innovation and technology in agriculture is the path to the future, the Argentinian INTA (National Agricultural Technology Institute) demonstrated at the CREA 2022 Congress, which has special coverage by AgroPages in Buenos Aires.
 
According to INTA, having an AgTech program contributes to reducing the technological gap and contributes to sustainability in production with more rational use of inputs and facilitating access to digitalized markets for agri-food products.
 
Technology 4.0 came to the agricultural sector to be at the service of the farming industry, in a world of information where everything is possible.
 
Thus, based on extensive experience and to broaden the industry’s vision, INTA specialists promote the incorporation of technology.

Gabriela Tallarico, coordinator of INTA's AgTech program

 
″Technologies allow transformations,″ said Gabriela Tallarico, coordinator of INTA's AgTech program.
 
″We are facing a true digital revolution, so it is essential to understand 4.0 technologies as tools to promote sustainable and inclusive growth processes in all the country's production chains,″ said Tallarico.
 
The increase in automation and the incorporation of agricultural technologies is not an end in itself, but should be valued insofar as they stimulate greater competitiveness, within a framework of equity and environmental sustainability.
 
″You have to look at the set of emerging technologies, such as sensors, satellite images, drones, robotics, Blockchain, and Big Data, which – alone or combined with other innovations – provide intensive and specialized services to provide solutions to the entire agro-industrial system in as a whole″, added Tallarico.

 
″Making a differential contribution requires combining technologies with knowledge, hand in hand with practical knowledge, research, and science. Here, INTA has a leading role and an explicit mandate,″ said Tallarico.
 
″We are facing a great opportunity to optimize innovation resources to provide cutting-edge knowledge and participate in the development of technologies adapted to the various territorial contexts and promote competitiveness.″
 
″INTA has an extensive track record in technological innovation, especially in precision agriculture,″ Tallarico added.
 
With this objective, INTA works at three levels. On the one hand, the process of improving access to the minimum infrastructure that allows technological access on a national scale is accomplished.

 
On the other hand, the aim is to promote the optimal use of the technologies available in other chains, such as fruit and vegetable farming and family farming.
 
Lastly, emerging technologies are used to find those niches in which there is no technological development and innovate to achieve a productive differential.
 
MOBILE TECHNOLOGY
 
Among the contributions of INTA that were shared in the CREA Congress, the applications for mobile devices for the production of fruit trees stand out.
 
SismoFrutal is a monitoring system for fruit trees and a tool that allows specific diagnoses to be made for pest control in a differentiated way.
 
This reduces the applications of chemical inputs and the consequent presence of residues in the fruits.
 
For its part, the Criollo application allows calculating the main operating parameters and performing a static verification, and it is available for Android mobile devices without the need for a signal or Internet access.

(Editing by Leonardo Gottems, reporter for AgroPages)