The Italian Embassy in Singapore organised a webinar on new technologies in sustainable agriculture, in tandem with SGInnovate. The “Uncovering Agriculture 4.0 – Sustainable Technologies” event took place in recent days, and was attended by Gianni Ferretti, professor at the Polytechnic University of Milan, Chiara Corbo, Head of the Smart Agrifood Observatory and Daniele Benatoff, co-founder of Planet Farms; managers from the Singapore Food Authority and the NUS Agritech Center also took part. Many research and development elements in common between Italy and Singapore emerged during the event, along with future potential areas of cooperation. The Planet Farms experience and technology in Italy was of special interest.
Following the pandemic, the area of new technologies in agriculture has recently been boosted in Singapore with a “30by30” government plan that provides for an increase in local food production, from the current percentage of 10% to 30% by 2030. The agritech sector is also becoming one of the leading areas of technological development in Italy as shown by how much is provided for in that sense by the PNRR (national recovery and resilience plan) call for applications.
In addition to the precision farming technologies in the agritech area, another point in common with Singapore involves the outlook for the development of integrated ecosystems in which the state, universities, research institutes, businesses, start-ups and capital funding can work together on an integrated, synergic basis. A recording of the webinar can be viewed on:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQFQ6IaAqsc
