EU Project aims to bring 'Internet of Things' to agriculture

16 February 2017. The Internet of Food and Farm 2020 (IoF2020) project investigates and fosters a large-scale implementation of Internet of Things (IoT) in the European farming and food sector. With a €30 million budget co-funded by the European Union, the project has the potential to bring a paradigm shift in this domain, by drastically improving productivity and sustainability.

It will demonstrate the added value of smart webs of connected objects, that are context-sensitive and can be identified, sensed and controlled remotely in the agri-food sector. 

• The project has started on January 1st 2017 and will run for four years. 
• It aims to include all the actors of the food chain, from farmers, food industry workers, technology providers and research institutes.
• Internet of Things is the internet working of physical devices that have network connectivity enabling to collect and exchange data between them. 
• Thanks to the Internet of Things (IoT), farmers can check their crop yield and animal health on their smartphone, while consumers can have information about the origin of their crops.

Multistakeholder approach and partnersThe project is the first large-scale project of its kind and will run for four years. The coordination is led by Wageningen University comprising 73 partners and aims to strenghten EU's position in the Internet of Things sector. The decision-making will be done by an implementation board of representatives from key user organizations.

IoF2020 involves the actors from the overall food chain, from the farmers, cooperatives, equipment suppliers, food processing companies, logistics providers to consumer organizations and includes ICT solution providers. In the approach, the end-users are the heart of IoF2020’s.

They will participate in assessing and improving the technologies used in the trials, ensuring the solutions developed meet the requirements and the expectations of the sector for the challenge to come. -Schuttelaar & Partners:2017. Thus IoF2020 will pave the way for data-driven farming, autonomous operations, virtual food chains and personalized nutrition for European citizens.

• Read the IoF2020 presentation here
• Read the EU IoF2020 project presentation here
• Read the Schuttelaar & Partners article on IoF2020 here