From the office of DISAA, the Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at the University of Milan, Professor Davide Facchinetti coordinates the activities of an experimental unit involved in Agrifood TEF, a major project funded by the Digital Europe program aimed at the creation and development of testing infrastructures for innovation in the agri-food sector.
“The goal of this project,” he explains, “is to build a network of infrastructures that provide companies developing robotic and advanced engineering solutions for the agrifood sector with the opportunity to conduct tests and experiments. This is an absolute novelty for Italy and a significant opportunity for all companies specializing in agricultural mechanics, a sector that plays a crucial role in Italy’s trade balance. We have already developed innovative solutions for testing and benchmarking technologies and tools based on artificial intelligence and robotics for the agrifood sector, collaborating with researchers of the Politecnico of Milan. Our role is to assist companies in testing their innovative solutions in real or highly realistic contexts. At the same time, this initiative also allows us to establish a network for the exchange of expertise among the partners involved in the project, fostering a win-win dynamic that generates tangible benefits for all.”
As an agronomist and professor of Agricultural Mechanics, Davide Facchinetti shares his perspective on the emergence of new professional profiles in agriculture. “The first thing to keep in mind,” he states, “is that the global population is continuously growing, and, consequently, so is the demand for food. Producing this food requires specialized labor, which is becoming increasingly difficult to find. Moreover, while robotics has already established itself in the industrial sector—where many production processes are fully automated—it is also advancing fast in agriculture, a domain that is more complex to manage due to its numerous variables. However, there is currently no clear legislation defining responsibilities in the event of accidents caused by agricultural robots. In this regard as well, our experience with the Agrifood TEF project can provide valuable insights for policymakers”.
Thanks to recent funding for Agriculture 4.0, farming is becoming increasingly digitalized. “With the technologies and sensors already available on the market” Facchinetti explains “it is possible to collect immense amounts of data throughout the production process of any agricultural product. The challenge then lies in managing and effectively utilizing this data. Fortunately, new technologies—particularly advances in artificial intelligence and a continuous increase in computational capacity—are providing significant support in this area”.
But, if technology offers venues for interesting developments, education policies seem to lag behind. “In my opinion, one of the disadvantages Italy faces compared to other countries is the lack of specific professional figures for this sector, such as the ‘agricultural engineer” he says “I believe however that this gap can be bridged in the short term. For instance, our department has already launched a new professionalizing Bachelor’s program in Digital Systems in Agriculture to train technical specialists who combine a foundational knowledge of agricultural systems with advanced skills in configuring and interacting with hardware and software systems integrated into business processes, as well as in extracting and managing data to optimize production activities in agriculture, livestock farming, and small-scale food processing”. This complements also the Master’s degree programme in Agricultural Engineering, offered by the Politecnico di Milano, in English at its Cremona campus. Both initiatives lay the groundwork for the potential development of a full 3+2-year degree program dedicated to these topics, aiming to train professionals who possess both agronomic and engineering expertise—profiles that are currently quite rare in the job market”.