The development of new technologies in sustainable agriculture has recently had a strong acceleration in Singapore following the pandemic, with the government’s 30by30 plan foreseeing an increase in local food production, from the current 10% to 30% by 2030, in the prospect of a more resilient and self-sufficient nation even if with very few spaces for agriculture.
In Italy, on the other hand, following one of the legacies of EXPO2015, the Agritech sector is becoming one of the leading sectors of technological development as evidenced by the recent announcement of the PNRR of 1.6 billion Euros for the construction of 5 national research centers, one of which is dedicated to this sector.
The point in common with Singapore in the agritech field are not only the technologies on precision agriculture, vertical greenhouses, the use of the Internet of Things, robotics, big data and digitalization, but also the prospect of developing ecosystems integrated in which the State, Universities, Research Bodies, Companies, Startups and Financial Capital can collaborate in an integrated and synergistic way.
In this perspective, on February 9, 2022, the webinar “Uncovering Agriculture 4.0 – Sustainable Technologies” on new technologies in the agricultural field was organized together with the SGInnovate Agency. On the Italian side, Prof. Gianni Ferretti, professor at the Polytechnic of Milan, Chiara Corbo, Director of the Smart Agrifood Observatory and Daniele Benatoff co-founder of Planet Farms participated. From Singapore, Executives of the Singapore Food Authority and the NUS Agritech Center as well as the CEO of a local startup. Over 100 people followed the live webinar, and about the same number of registrations. In the discussion many elements of research and development in common between Italy and Singapore and possible future synergies emerged. In particular, the experience and technology of Planet Farms in Italy has aroused much interest.
The registration of the webinar is visible HERE.
Further details on the agritech topic and on the content of the webinar are available HERE, in the report by the Embassy intern, Giulia Pedone.
