Page 28 - A U4SSC deliverable - Accelerating city transformation using frontier technologies

In focus – IoT for food and farm systems- IoF2020 project, European Commission

The agriculture sector forms the core of human society given its central role in the provision of nutrition
for sustenance. Despite its importance, the sector continues to face critical challenges associated with
food security, food safety, sustainability and health since the green revolution in the mid-1900s. While
70
a certain proportion of agricultural operations have been digitised, these are often not coordinated.
This, coupled with the increase in the global population, means that a radical increase in productivity
is essential. These challenges and targets have been elucidated further in SDG 2 on “Global Hunger”,
which aims to tackle issues relating to food security and the smooth functioning of the food commodity
markets. Realising the benefits that IoT can bring to this field, the IoT paradigm was adopted as a part
of the IoF2020 project (under the umbrella of the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 projects).
Leveraging IoT, this project aims to create a symbiotic ecosystem which will not only boost productivity to
balance the supply and demand sides of the agri-food sector (without compromising on environmental
sustainability) but will also support innovative business models.
71

Figure 4: IoF2020 trial sites (Source)

Supported by over 120 partners, the project has conducted five trials revolving around the relevant
challenges in the agricultural sector. The trial sites are spread over 10 countries within Europe including
(but not limited to) Italy, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Portugal, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Poland,
Austria and Sweden:

• Trial 1- Arable farming: This trial aims to increase yield, lower environmental impact, improve
transparency along the food chain, and facilitate the use of ICTs for agricultural operations by
farmers. For this trial, IoT sensors were used to gather data throughout the crop cycle to measure
and monitor relevant parameters associated with soil moisture, climate and pest detection. The

18 Accelerating city transformation using frontier technologies | A U4SSC deliverable