Artificial intelligence to increase the yield and quality of the wheat crop, while ensuring sustainable agriculture in a context of climate change. The project was funded by the Sgambaro pasta factory, which uses only 100% Italian wheat, in collaboration with Cybeletech, a French company specializing in the development of digital technologies applied to the agricultural and vegetable world. «We will make available – says the president Pierantonio Sgambaro – one of the most advanced technologies in the sector, able to collect a wealth of very important data to give concrete support to the farmers and cooperatives we work with. The possibility for the company and our suppliers to monitor the average yield and the quality of production allows us to obtain the best beans to produce an excellent pasta from every point of view ».
Thanks to the data provided, farmers will be able to adapt the varieties of plants, receive the best indications regarding density and date of sowing, the fertilization rate, the type and frequency of rotations in relation to the climatic conditions, in order to produce in compliance the quality of the product and the ecosystem. Furthermore, it will also be possible to calibrate, minimizing, the applications of strictly necessary fertilizers and pesticides, but also to anticipate and limit the pressure of pests through better crop rotations by reducing the use of pesticides and CO2 emissions. At the same time, however, it will also be possible to measure the impact capacity that carbon dioxide has on the soil during photosynthesis, i.e. the sequestration of carbon and therefore to improve the levels of carbon dioxide in the soil.
The first partner with whom Sgambaro has developed the “I Field Good” project is the La Pineta Cooperative, based in Cerignola, in Puglia, in the heart of the best and largest Italian durum wheat production area, where the first grains in these days. In that land Sgambaro has a silos where the wheat rests, in view of the production of pasta, which will begin next September. “The platform is able to provide the calculation and identification of durum wheat surfaces, the forecast of the yield and the trend of the protein content in the production basin for the current season”.