The business model is commonly understood as the strategy (process and design) and operations (implementation) of companies to carry out their business ideas in the market. A large number of agricultural companies, the business model is often not clearly defined from the beginning of their activities. Key elements of the model, such as the flow of information, risk assessment, channels and accounting, are often neglected in the digitization processes in which companies are involved.
In the field of SPA, new technological developments that allow a specialized and sustainable agricultural production are changing the business model of many producers. They are going from being merely traditional farmers in charge of generating food and resources to agricultural entrepreneurs with a lot of equipment, intelligent machinery and advanced sensors in their charge. There are systems such as Farm Management Information Systems (FMIS) capable of centralizing all farm information from various data sources. And companies must start implementing them, as well as other available technological solutions, if they do not want to lose competitiveness in an increasingly digital market.
Within the framework of the SPARKLE project, the aim is for students and entrepreneurs to acquire digital skills in different aspects of precision agriculture within knowledge-generating centers (universities and research centers) and to be able to implement them in the business environment of companies, trying to close the gap between the two that currently exists. This can generate an opportunity for farms to develop their business by adopting SPA technologies, allowing students to implement their knowledge through the development of innovative businesses for farms and allowing researchers to collect information to evaluate the educational impact of the intrapreneurship experience.
With this objective in mind, one of the fundamental pillars of the SPARKLE project is the implementation of a competition of busines
s models, which students will have to validate in real environments. For students, this competition should serve to enhance competencies such as problem solving, critical thinking for face real challenges and feasible solutions, and personal competencies such as leadership and management within the student teams or the communication of results.
This competition promises to promote important values of entrepreneurship, the use of the skills of the SPA learned during the e-learning course generated in the SPARKLE project, and allow cross-border work where to implement attractive technical solutions to a sector such as agriculture, in full process of digitization into the future.
What are you waiting for?! Find out more on the SPARKLE social media and join the competition!