New materials and new technologies for the agriculture of the future: this was NovelFarm, the two-day event dedicated to professionals in the fields of indoor cultivation, vertical farming, aquaponics, hydroponics, and integrated environmental agriculture.
The show was held at the Pordenone exhibition center: a small pavilion with about 30 companies, but many visitors from abroad, looking for novelties.
Click here to see photos from the fair.
The event presented the many innovations in science and technology aimed at perfecting cultivation methods in order to yield more and better, setting high-quality standards. At the same time, stability in the nutritional characteristics of food.
Click here to see photos from the fair.
It emerged from the various conferences that off-site cultivation techniques guarantee a long series of advantages. For instance, very high productivity, very low consumption of water and nutrients, no need for pesticides, total control of product characteristics, no influence of weather conditions, and drastic shortening of logistics chains.
Click here to see photos from the fair.
On the other hand, there are high capital costs to these CEA methods, high energy expenses, and sophisticated management requirements. The manufacturers' response is to invest substantial resources in technology.
At NovelFarm, the Cyber Agriculture session provided an overview of some of the solutions that have been developed to make off-site and vertical farms the most efficient solution ever for the production of most crop varieties.