New FIC project aims at digital insertion of Biobío agricultural companies

The program will aim at 150 direct and 550 indirect beneficiaries, from various items associated with the regional fruit and vegetable industry. Chile is the largest fruit exporter in the southern hemisphere, shipping 2.6 million tons of fruit abroad. However, climate change and the depletion of natural resources have made it a challenge to implement new techniques for agricultural development, such as precision agriculture.

According to the Fundación de Estudios Rurales, 2021, the digitization process of the agri-food sector will influence the change of roles and the development of new business models linked to agricultural advice. The massive use of data, its management and analysis, together with the use of technologies, such as artificial intelligence, will make it possible to provide decision support tools to farmers and ranchers, in a way that allows them to move on to a process of advanced decision-making and adapted to the specific needs of each farm.

Currently, in the Biobío Region, agricultural companies do not have key technologies that allow efficiency and sustainability in their production, some of them are the adoption of technologies for efficient technical irrigation, irrigation sensors, mechanization, telemetry, among others. .

Companies face problems in the adoption of technologies, mainly due to lack of knowledge of existing platforms.

In this context, the Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción will develop the initiative “Transfer for the digital insertion of agricultural companies in the Biobío region”, a project framed in the Innovation Fund for Competitiveness FIC-R 2022 of the Regional Government of the Biobío.

fill gaps

In this regard, Robinson Sáez, a specialist from the Regional Center for Environmental Studies (CREA) and director of this FIC project, indicated that the importance of peasant family farming in “our national and regional economy, which represents 90% of the country’s agricultural units and where a large part of the food that reaches our homes comes from these producers, therefore it is very important that these businessmen and entrepreneurs can cover the gaps and technological needs that they currently have, being able to make the leap to new national and international markets, highlighting items such as vegetables, berries, European hazelnut, vines, cherry trees, among others”.

He stressed that the program will target 150 direct beneficiaries and 550 indirect beneficiaries from Biobío communes, such as Los Ángeles, Mulchén, San Rosendo, Negrete or Tucapel, and from various items associated with the regional fruit and vegetable sector.

In addition, he said that the initiative contemplates developing a technology dissemination and transfer program that implements pilots with digital technology that overcome gaps in management and operation for a farmer in the Biobío Region. “With the implementation of technologies for agricultural production processes, it seeks to publicize these digital pilots for agricultural production processes, in areas as diverse as regional fruit, and that in the long run will increase the income of farmers in the region,” stressed.

In addition, they will be linked with ad hoc technological specialists, who will internalize the benefits of using digital technologies. On the other hand, the project contemplates developing a program of massive diffusion of these technologies, both to the beneficiaries, relevant actors in the areas and the community in general.