London — CNH Industrial (NYSE: CNHI / MI: CNHI) is further enhancing its commitment to sustainable farming through its participation in the Internet of Food & Farm 2020 (IoF2020), a European consortium whose goal is to foster the large-scale adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies in the European farming and food value chain. The project, launched on January 1st 2017, emerges from the “Alliance of Internet of Things Innovation (AIOTI)” initiative, which was established by the European Commission and will run for the next four years.
IoF2020 brings together 71 partners from 16 countries and is coordinated by Wageningen University & Research Centre (the Netherlands). Aligned with the Horizon 2020 strategy, this 30 million euro project, co-funded by the European Union, has the objective of investigating the implementation and the use of IoT in European food and farming.
The theme of smart and connected objects is of growing interest; take-up, however, remains relatively low in Europe. The role of IoF2020 is to highlight the challenges facing the agricultural sector and to look for solutions which can facilitate its expansion.
To this end, the project will focus on 19 use cases throughout Europe and will seek to provide solutions for five agri-food areas: arable farming, dairy, meat, vegetables and fruits by taking into account their specific requirements and challenges. The IoT technologies will be evaluated, as well as their societal impact to better understand the adoption of such technologies.
CNH Industrial will lead a use case on Interoperability. This area focuses on enabling agricultural machinery, independent of brand, to work as part of one unified agronomic production system, leading to operational efficiencies, with the ultimate aim of improving overall agricultural productivity.
“As agriculture is evolving from the optimization of one single machine to an ecosystem of smart and connected vehicles communicating with each other, we have decided to take this technology revolution as an opportunity to provide our customers with a solution adapted to their specific needs,” said Antonio Marzia, Head of Data Analytics and Services at CNH Industrial. “We, at CNH Industrial, believe that the ability to provide value-added services focused on improving farm management and overall productivity will be pivotal for the future of agriculture. This is why we have a dedicated team specializing in new technologies, which is strongly involved in different research projects to promote innovation and sustainability in agriculture throughout Europe.”
CNH Industrial’s participation in the IoF2020 will have strategic importance in calling governments’ and industry organizations’ attention to the subject, and will help shape public policy and drive agriculture and standards towards an open and connected agricultural ecosystem.