Innovation and sustainability are the two keywords that cross what has been called agriculture 4.0. At the Rimini Expo Center from 7 to 9 September on the occasion of Macfrut, the international fruit and vegetable fair, there will be a real demonstration field of over 1,000 square meters: the Macfrut Field Solution. Here, farmers and technicians will be able to see live how innovative machines and equipment work.

"Today the watchword is competitiveness, understood in the social, environmental and economic fields", explains Luciano Trentini, coordinator of the dynamic areas at the fair. "These three words can be summarized in Field Solution, the project that within the fair For some years Macfrut has been presenting machines and equipment that can meet the challenges of the fruit and vegetable sector in reference to commercial and production processes".

The Macfrut Field Solution area is created in collaboration with Cermac, a consortium for the internationalization of Italian manufacturers of machinery, equipment, technologies and accessories for agriculture and agro-industry. "Our country is a world leader in the field of technological innovations in the agricultural sector and in particular in the fruit and vegetable sector", says Enrico Turoni, president of Cermac. "The test field set up at the fair represents an important showcase for showcasing and presenting to professionals in the sector all the news in terms of technological innovation. For Cermac, the collaboration with Macfrut is strategic because in recent years, engaging in the promotion of the fair abroad, we have had the opportunity to present the technologies of our members on various foreign markets. Macfrut, for our companies, is not limited to the three canonical days of the fair, but represents an opportunity for promotion throughout the year”.

Among the proposals at the fair we find the electric facilitating machines for asparagus that allow a labor saving of the order of 50%, vital in a moment like the present in difficulty in finding workers due to the health emergency. The traction by means of an electric motor, moreover, allows a considerable reduction of environmental and acoustic pollution, in particular when this type of operation takes place in the greenhouse. Still on the subject of green vehicles, it will be possible to see electronic seeders at work capable of planting different types of seeds (large and small) on bare soil or mulched with traditional or biodegradable films. These new mulching materials, whole biodegradable, perforated or micro-perforated, do not need to be collected and disposed of, as they can be directly buried as they degrade in a short time.

One of the problems of our periculture are fungal diseases, phytosanitary problems that often make the fruit not marketable. In the test field it will be explained how through the correct use of heat, at low costs, the inoculation of the fungus on the ground and consequently the damage can be reduced, saving phytosanitary treatments that often alone are not solving the problem. To conclude, there will also be machines for weeding leaf species to be allocated to the fourth range, able to work in continuous row conditions starting from 4.5 cm between the product lines, reducing the level of grassing by more than 70%. The test field will in fact also be enriched by the exhibitors of International Asparagus Days, the event entirely dedicated to asparagus, which will host numerous demonstration activities.