Antonio cultivates 15 hectares of vines on the Italian Apennine foothills. His family has been producing winegrapes for three generations, on medium-slope hills with an average altitude of 300 m.

As his father and grandfather did, Antonio is using a traditional Guyot system: 3,000 vines per hectare with 2.5 m between rows to be able to pass comfortably with the tractor.

For decades the practices inherited from his grandfather had allowed a reasonable production of 9-10 tons per hectare, and the tractor, the sprayer and the tiller bought by his father allowed for reducing the effort needed to manage the vineyard in the vegetative period.

The Sangiovese grape produced has always had a good sugar content and the cooperative winery to which it is conferred recognized a sufficient price to run the farm, which also produces cereals and the same fodder.

Unfortunately, in the last 10 years, everything has changed.

First, vines increasingly suffer from drought during the summer period. Spring rainfalls are increasingly less abundant, and often there are 2-3 summer months without rain. Antonio's vines and those of his neighbours have never needed irrigation, so he not only does not have a drip system in the vineyard but does not even have access to a consortium water supply or a pond as a water reserve for the summer months.

Even worse, when water comes it's with very strong thunderstorms, and the free-run water is digging channels that are dangerous even for the tractor. The most worrying aspect is the loss of soil in sloping vineyards because at every storm tons of soil accumulates at the bottom of the plot. The layer of superficial soil gets thinner and thinner and some plants have already their roots uncovered.

As if that was not enough, Antonio records more and more extreme temperatures: the temperature has reached 37-38 °C in the last three years, even if only for a few days, and the vineyards in the valley bottom have been seriously damaged by frosts in two consecutive years.

The result is that more and more frequently, Antonio produces much fewer grapes, in some years even half of what he used to produce. The sugar level is good and the grapes are healthy enough, but the higher unit price paid by the cooperative winery does not compensate at all for the lower production - also because the cost of fuel, products and fertilisers has increased at the same time.

Antonio's father shakes his head and does not know how to deal with these changes, but Antonio must absolutely find a solution and reverse the trend if he wants to avoid bankruptcy and leave the productive vineyards as an inheritance to his children.

Bertrand’s family owns a 45-hectare farm in the South West of France. In the past, the majority of the arable land of the farm was dedicated to conventional cultivation of wheat and barley, but since Bertrand took over the management of the company, there has been a gradual shift towards vines, which now occupy 25 hectares of land. The rest of the hill farm is made up of coppice woods with a wide biodiversity.

The reasons for the drastic change in cultivation were different: certainly, the higher profitability of grapes compared to cereals, but also the will to get out of the dependence on fertilisers and of the obligation of agronomic techniques that kill the soil. Bertrand wants to preserve his land in good shape, and the consumers are increasingly asking for fewer chemicals in agriculture: therefore, his property is certified for the production of organic wine.

The production of organic grapes turned out to be quite challenging.

After so many years of ploughing and inorganic fertilisation, the soil organic matter was very low, and Bertrand had to supply large amounts of manure and compost, not easy to find of good quality. New vineyards have been subject to heavy attacks by mites, eradicated with great effort for many years without synthetic insecticides. More recently, many vines are infected by flavescence dorée, maybe because the vineyards are all surrounded by woods.

The main challenge for Bertrand is the management of copper spraying. In particularly rainy years, more than 10 treatments would be needed: this makes it difficult to stay below the legal limit of copper per year, and it requires numerous passages of the tractor in the vineyard, with a compacting effect that in the clayey soils of Bertrand can be very problematic.

Sustainability is one of the main drivers in the production strategy of Gaetano, the technical director of an important wine group in the south of Italy. The family that owns the property is seriously engaged in developing the business by minimising the impact on the environment and to the benefit of the local rural society.

Gaetano has under control all the steps of the production process: wine grape production, winemaking (100% of the wine is obtained from their own grapes), packaging, and marketing. All the production is certified as organic, and a lot of efforts have been put in the past in the vineyard to optimise the use of resources, maintain healthy soil, improve labour conditions for workers, and always ensure a high enological quality of grapes.

Presently, Gaetano’s action is focused on reducing the use of energy and water in the vineyard.

Energy reduction in the vineyard is related to the number of machine passages in each vineyard during the season, related to both the number of treatments required and the number of mechanical operations such as pruning, labour, defoliation, vineyard topping and so on. Also, the carbon footprint of the products used to spray the vines could be relevant.

Furthermore, the high environmental temperatures during the harvest period leads to warm grapes, at 30 °C or more at winery reception, imposing their drastic chilling before any step of the process. Energy savings are also important to reduce the overall carbon footprint of the winery and recently have assumed high economic relevance due to the significant increase in bill costs.

Saving water is another goal of Gaetano’s management plan. As a recent water footprint of the winery operations has quantified the overall consumption of 3 litres of water per litre of wine, above the average for wineries of the same size, the aim is trying to reduce it not only in the cellar but also in the vineyard, optimizing the quantity needed both for irrigation and spaying.

Wastewater treatment is also a concern. Gaetano aims to reuse all water, including rainwater from roofs and courtyard, for vineyard irrigation in the dry season, and the high variability of wastewater from the winery throughout the year, both in quantity and in composition, poses major problems.

Marie is the director of a cooperative winery in the South of France. About 50,000 hL of wine are produced each year, mostly red but also rosé and white. The vineyard and the wine are not organically farmed, but Marie is concerned about the environment and practices responsible agriculture with the least amount of treatments and inputs possible. The management of the vineyard as well as the wine-making process are thought out in the context of energy sobriety: combining tools to reduce the number of times the tractor passes through the vineyard, limiting the waste of water in the winery...

The 2022 vintage was marked by heat waves with record temperatures that were more than 2.5°C above the seasonal normal, every month from May to August. Concerning rainfall, the vines received only half the average rainfall of the last 20 years during the campaign (April-August).

As a result of these increasingly hot and dry vintages, Marie has noticed an increase in the sugar content of the grapes, which is accompanied by a decrease in the acidity level, resulting in higher and higher alcoholic degrees in the wine. Beyond the sensory issue with the burning side and the imbalance that can result from excessive alcohol content, this also goes against the societal expectation since the consumer is more and more in demand of dietetic products, light and low in alcohol content.

Marie is therefore looking for innovations that will allow her to overcome this problem. She is ready to test everything, both in the vineyard and in the cellar!

The soil, as a support for production, a regulatory engine and a major reservoir of biodiversity on the planet (FAO, 2015), is a fundamental link in the ecological transition. It is therefore an important lever to move towards a more ecologically and economically sustainable viticulture.

The soil is exactly what Alexandra is struggling with. Alexandra has just accepted a new position as technical director of a vineyard in the north of Spain that extends over a hundred hectares, producing P.G.I. and D.O.C. wines. But for several years, yields have been falling and mortality rates have been high. As is often the case in Spain, the soil of the vineyard has always been worked in its entirety. Alexandra has to deal with very compacted soils, not very lively and with low organic matter levels.

One of the levers Alexandra has thought of is the implementation of permanent soil cover associated with temporary cover crops to limit tillage and thus resulting compaction and erosion. Although this seems to her to be the right track, she is still thinking about the most suitable itinerary to develop because she must take into account the hydro-nitrogen competition with the vines and she does not want to use herbicides.

Alexandra knows that restoring the fertility of her soils is the cornerstone to regaining a satisfactory level of yield based on the desired product profile. She absolutely must find a solution to reverse the trend and keep her new job.

In the north of Portugal, in the region of Trás-os-Montes, the landscape is marked by agricultural activity, with olive groves being the most representative. In the region, olive groves occupy an area of ​​around 84,000 ha, with an average olive grove area of ​​2ha/exploration, with most of the area conducted under rainfed conditions. We can divide the olive grove into 3 distinct classes: traditional characterized by being an olive grove with advanced age and with densities of up to 180 olive trees/ha; intensive with densities ranging from 200 to 400 plants/ha; high density with more than 1000 plants/ha. Of these 3 types, the least representative in terms of area is the high-density olive grove, which in the region has an area of ​​less than 100 ha. In the region, indigenous cultures predominate, of which Cobrançosa, Verdeal Transmontana and Madural stand out. The region produces around 90,000 Tons of Olives, and around 15,000 Tons of Olive Oil and has an average production of 1500 kg olives/ha.
 

The year 2022 was quite atypical, marked by low rainfall and high temperatures during the flowering period which, combined with the prolonged drought during the summer, caused a 50% drop in terms of olive production.
 

Francisco has an olive grove, with about 150 ha of olive groves of indigenous cultivars, comprising: 50 ha of traditional olive groves and 110 ha of new olive groves, with an average production of 2 tons/ha. The farm also has an olive oil mill that transforms the total production of olives, with the olive oil subsequently sold under its own brand. Cultural practices are in line with the organic production method; Soil management is done by cutting spontaneous vegetation in the row and maintaining nitrogen-fixing plants (legumes) between the rows. Fertilization is carried out in the soil and can be supplemented with foliar fertilizers, in order to reduce water stress and protect the plant from high temperatures, using sunscreens such as kaolin. Kaolin is also used as a way to reduce olive fly attacks. In terms of the cultural fight against the olive fly, the fruits are harvested in advance. The quantities produced in this region are not competitive in relation to other olive-producing regions, for this, it bets on valuing the product for its quality, or rather, transforming the olive into olive oil and thus valuing the final product, allied to DOP Olive Oil of Trás-os-Montes and Organic Farming.

Messara plain is one of the most intensively cultivated areas with olives in Crete. Olive tree monoculture results in decreased biodiversity, since ground cultivation is the most common soil management practice. In addition, Oxalis pescaprae, an invasive alien species of the area (Damanakis and Markaki, 1990), is the predominant weed found in olive orchards. The growers think that is beneficial as it dies in summer and that it is leguminous. This results in the exclusion of other species from the ground cover (Petsikos et al., 2007).

This phenomenon is widely observed by Dimitris, an organic olive grower, of four years in the area. Initially cultivating 4 ha of irrigated olive orchards, he is now also managing neighbouring farms because he is a good example in his village for preserving his land while having a good production of olives. Manure, mulching and cover crops are the main fertilisation practices that he is following. He avoids tillage or any weed management practices rather than mowing. The feedback he is getting from the consumers is an increasing demand for fewer chemicals in agriculture: therefore, he seeks less labour-intensive practices for managing his orchards that can be achieved through increased biodiversity. His intention is to create a balanced food web for the cycling of nutrients in the soil.

Two years ago, while concerned by the lack of biodiversity in the region, he decided to consider green infrastructures surrounding the orchards with trees, herbaceous perennials and cover crops. Dimitris believes that organic agricultural practices in conjunction with ecological restoration methods for the management of field margins (hedges and mid-field strips), can create suitable habitats providing food sources and shelter to pollinators or natural enemies of insect pests and also provide the agroecosystem with a substantial amount of biomass.

While his dream of a greener valley has started paying off, the main challenge for Dimitris is the flora enrichment between the tree rows, without having to seed every year. Dimitris considers that green infrastructure and the subsequent conservation and increase of flora and fauna diversity help to adapt to climate change conditions.

TONY is an agronomic engineer and lives in the southern part of the Apulia Region, almost in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. He holds an organic fruit farm based on several crops (vegetables, table grapes, almonds, and citrus). The organic strategy is a lifestyle for him: every production step owns a strategy, from the fertilisation patterns to the pest and disease control to the packaging.

 He recycles the cutting and pruning of trees into the soil after composting them; he uses the beneficial insects in open fields against invasive pests and provides biodegradable polymers for the packaging activity.

 Organic citrus production is an important crop for farmers in the South Italian Regions, and the implications of its innovation reach far beyond those regions as they set out to revolutionize organic production and packaging of fruits and vegetables in Europe and beyond.

 One success factor is certainly the way how each crucial segment is embedded in a holistic system that overarches the entire value chain of organic citrus.

 IoT technologies are a possible solution to allow the farmer to decrease production costs and achieve added values, such as energy production at the farm level.

 IoT comes into play in terms of optimizing the production process, meaning the entire life cycle of a product, from farm to fork. The farmer relies on weather stations and sensors at the farm level, measuring soil moisture and temperature, electrical conductivity, or atmospheric pressure. All gathered data are centralized in a Decision Support System (DSS). that combines the key parameters from various locations with different environmental conditions within one farm management system.

 The key factor is the water, and in Toni’s farm, the water source for irrigation are wells that are about 70 to 100 m deep and fill a big reservoir to ensure the continuous supply of this crucial resource. The water consumption varies wildly, depending on which irrigation technique is applied and the specific needs of the variety. The optimal irrigation is adjusted and controlled by the farmer itself, but the Decision Support System helps the work using the analysis of the crop’s physiological state, nutrition consumption, and all sensor data centralised to achieve the best results possible. Saving water is a must in the South Italian Regions due to its scarcity, and the IoT has performed for several years with good results.

 But the recent dramatic European history has generated an increasing energy cost at the farm level that is partially satisfied using photovoltaic roofs. Therefore, it is necessary to make a step beyond expanding photovoltaic production at a field level using agrophotovoltaic (APV).

 This innovation has been suggested as an opportunity for the synergistic combination of renewable energy and food production. Tony’s ideas are perfectly online with his organic production strategy.  

Samuel is a young farmer from the Valencia region. A few years ago, he decided to recover his family's land, which had been dedicated to citrus production for decades, but since his grandfather decided to retire, it had been uncultivated.

Samuel, with a lot of effort, managed to gather 10 hectares, which he converted to avocado cultivation, as his area has the optimal conditions for the crop. Soon, he began to produce avocados of excellent quality, however, the recent droughts were beginning to be a problem for his farm.

The increased periods of drought were causing problems for his farm as rainfall had been considerably reduced and he was therefore having to increase the use of irrigation water to maintain his crop, with the consequent water footprint and additional expense that this entailed.

This problem was particularly acute in spring when the plants were beginning to flower, and he was seeing how this flowering was weak and many flowers were not viable, falling prematurely and, therefore, reducing his production.

In addition to this, the low fruit size has started to be a serious problem. This water stress suffered by the plants is causing smaller and lower quality fruit, which is also having a negative effect on the market value of their produce.

Samuel and his whole family are very concerned but they must find a solution that involves being more efficient in the management of the available water and in this way be able to be a sustainable farm and recover the productivity of their avocado plantations.

Daniela, a passionate avocado grower from Peru, made a bold decision with her family to leave their homeland and venture into avocado growing in Spain. They arrived with hope and determination and set up a farm where they worked together, carefully tending 15 hectares of land.

However, they soon realised that growing avocados in Spain was not exactly the same as in Peru. Day by day they had more doubts and challenges to face and when they turned to the literature, most of it was about avocado cultivation in South America.

They quickly realised that the winters could be a challenge, as they realised that they were quite warm, causing early sprouts that a priori could seem positive, but practically every winter brought a few days of late cold, at the gates of spring, which caused and made them susceptible to later problems. Daniela and her family were concerned about the uncertainty that the winter temperatures caused.

In addition, Daniela noticed something that really caught her attention: the lack of pollinators. In avocado production, this is an essential factor in the production of avocados. The high temperatures seemed to affect the bees, resulting in fewer pollinators and, consequently, a reduced pollination rate. This decrease in pollination had a negative impact on the productivity of their crop, as fewer flowers were turning into fruit.

It was of utmost importance that Daniela, together with her family, stopped to think about solutions, as it was clear that she needed updated crop information, relevant to her new area to combat the temperatures, both in winter and summer and to try to keep as many pollinators as possible on her farm.

Andrés, a former car worker, decided to embark on a new path as an avocado grower. He rented a plantation from an old friend who, for family reasons, was forced to move to another country. With enthusiasm and determination, Andrés plunged into the world of agriculture. It was nothing new to him, as he had helped on the family farm since he was a child, but when they moved to the city, Andrés' parents decided to sell the farm.

As soon as Andrés got down to work, he quickly realised that there was something he was deeply concerned about; climate change and its effects on the avocado crop. Increasingly, droughts were becoming more prolonged, while the rains, when they finally came, were torrential. These extreme weather patterns were wreaking havoc on his plantation.

Heavy rains were causing noticeable soil erosion, flooding and waterlogging on his plantation. The fertile soil he valued so highly was eroding rapidly, taking with it essential nutrients for his trees. Andrés was concerned about the declining soil quality and its negative impact on tree growth.

In addition, climatic fluctuations and rising temperatures were leading to pests and diseases. The high temperatures were creating an environment conducive to the proliferation of pests and diseases that were damaging his trees, especially the younger ones. Andrés is facing a constant struggle to protect his trees from these threats in order to maintain their health and productivity.

The challenge ahead of Andrés is very important, and he has to find solutions to all the problems he faces, as he has to try to control water in order to be able to use it in times of drought and implement techniques to avoid erosion. In addition, he decided not to give up on pests and diseases, and his experience in the industry made him think that there had to be some kind of tool to be able to keep ahead of these pathogens.

Gavino is the general production manager of a large private estate producing several crops in Sardinia, with a focus on grapes, olives and citrus fruits. The largest one is a vineyard, with 130 hectares on its property, and multi-year contracts with neighbouring grapegrowers for another 200 hectares to which it provides technical assistance and often services as a contractor, given the increase in the average age of independent farmers. Olives and citrus fruits are around 100 ha each.

In order to guarantee the standard of quality that has made the fortune of the brand, every operation in the field is part of a productive strategy whose precise application Gavino is responsible for. The property has never made Gavino lack financial resources for the purchase of machinery and equipment, and has a good management policy for its human resources, with salaries that are above the sector average in the region.

Nevertheless, recently Gavino is facing a major challenge due to the lack of personnel, both seasonal and permanent.

Winter pruning is an operation that requires many hours of work and a good knowledge of pruning techniques, because from this largely depends the quantity and quality of crop that will be obtained. Perhaps because of the cold weather suffered from staying so many hours outdoors in winter, perhaps because of the physical problems of posture and fatigue, perhaps because of the competition of tourism that has developed so much in the region, in short, every year it is increasingly more difficult to find sufficient staff.

Another very critical phase is the harvest. In order to obtain the desired quality, it is very important to harvest at the right time of ripeness. For every crop and specific plot, there is a temporal window of at most one week within which it is necessary to harvest and quickly bring them to the farm in order to be processed on sold as fresh fruit. For example, traditionally several dozens of people were hired for the grape harvest during a few weeks, including local pensioners and students, but also foreign workers who came specifically for the harvest. Many were also hired in the weeks prior to harvest for the sampling required for the maturity control of grapes. This pool of workers seems to be getting smaller and smaller, and each year it is harder and harder to find workers for the entire harvest period.

The problem is also assuming worrisome proportions for permanent employees for the estate and even the offices. The biggest issue here is the competence of the workers, who must be aware of the importance of each operation and know how to implement it in the best way. Training in a company is often a job without end because there is a strong turnover of workers, above all young people. In office work, expertise and precision are increasingly vital given the increase in bureaucracy and legally required paperwork.