The digitalisation of the agri-food sector, which started about 20 years ago with the use of early GPS to map farms and crops, today represents an opportunity of enormous value for farms, especially in Italy, the country renowned for its raw materials and good food.
Thanks to Cloud technology, the Internet of Things, Big Data, Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence software and, above all, thanks to state-of-the-art connectivity, entrepreneurs can manage operations more effectively, provide higher quality products, save on the resources they use, lower costs for the production chain, and reduce their environmental impact.
A concrete example of digitalisation in rural areas is the project for the Caseificio Sangiovanni cheese manufacturer, carried out by TIM Enterprise with Tecnoalimenti, the Scientific and Technological Research Organisation that develops industrial projects for the agri-food sector, and Rurall, the technology platform that supports the sector's digital and ecological transition.
The main goals achieved with this integrated solution were:
- Process optimisation: information collected on farming activities within the Digital Farm Notebook and data collected on the milking process and machinery — collected through Olivetti IoT sensors installed in the stables — has helped to optimise processing operations and the use of resources.
- Data traceability: by managing all supply chain data on one platform, it was possible to constantly monitor and track processing. Furthermore, the cattle feed or the exact milking can be traced directly to the final product.
- Transparency and certification of information: data are provided by TIM's Blockchain technology, used to notarise the data collected by the sensors, ensuring compliance with production standards and the origin of the product, awarding it the D.O.C.G. (Dato di Origine Certificata e Garantita [Data of Certified and Guaranteed Origin]) stamp.
These benefits are attractive to producers and end consumers alike. Gathering information on the various production operations, from the field to the stable to the processing environment, makes it possible to produce a more controlled and, therefore, safer and higher quality product. And at the same time, the increased transparency of production processes allows customers to make informed product choices.
The project for Caseificio Sangiovanni is just one of the concrete examples of how digital technology is used in the agri-food supply chain led by TIM Enterprise, which offers innovative and integrated solutions for increasingly smarter and more sustainable agriculture.