On 5th October 2018 CEMA’s Secretary General Jerome Bandry participated to the Workshop “EU strategy to promote digital and technological transformation of EU agriculture” organized by Copa-Cogeca.

The event saw the presence of representatives of the European Commission’s DG AGRI, as well as the European GNSS Agency (GSA).

In a panel moderated by Luis Perez-Freire, Chair of the WG 06 on Agriculture, Alliance of Internet of Things (AIOTI), Mr Bandry discussed the topic of the infrastructure needed to build the data-driven agri-business solutions of the future. While underlining the problem of the current imbalance between the offer and demand of Smart Farming Technologies (SFTs), Mr Bandry listed the conditions without which their uptake will not take off. A certain level of trust is needed for farmers to share their data; in this sense, the Code of Conduct on agricultural data-sharing by contractual agreement was elaborated by the main stakeholders of the sector to cover all relevant aspect and help building trust. Smart Farming Technologies also need to be supported by adequate broadband infrastructure, communication technologies for device-to-device communication and suitable interoperability to create value added within the agricultural chain but also outside. The value should also be such that SFTs are affordable and accessible to farmers and contractors of all sizes. SFTs require skills, awareness and investment support. 

Jerome at Copa event 5Oct2018 v2