The SPARKLE partnership has already met twice: the kickoff meeting was held on 12th and 13th February 2018 and the second meeting on 5th and 6th June in Pisa. Both the meetings were useful for the partners to starting knowing better each other and planning the first activities.
The first project task was to identify the training needs of the target groups: University students, PA researchers and farmers already adopting PA technologies. During this research more than 500 students, 12 researchers and 32 farmers in the four countries involved in the project (Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece) were contacted. The aim of this investigation is to understand from the relevant actors which are the needs they have and which are the skills and competences which is important to develop in order to become an agripreneur. When we talk of agripreneur we refer to the farmers of the future, the person who is able to manage with success a farm adopting precision agriculture technologies.
During the second meeting in Pisa, the partnership worked on how to conduct the second phase of the research. At this stage, the partners worked on three different aspects for providing the agripreneurs with advanced tools for better planning and structuring their businesses. The research is conducted on three directives, which are:
– A foresight analysis, in order to define which are the technological trends in the future of precision agriculture
– A detailed research on robotics in precision agriculture, in order to present an overview of all the opportunities linked to this particular domain
– The definition of a set of business models of farmers adopting precision agriculture initiatives, in order to present how a technological farm is structured, how its business model is different in respect of traditional farm and how it is possible to design a business taking into consideration PA technologies.
Al the results of this stage (Training needs assessment, Foresight analysis, Research on Robotics and Business Models of PA farms) will be uploaded on the website when available.