Competitive agricultural benchmarking
The Innovation Plan encourages the organizational strengthening of the supply chain, focusing innovations on the definition of an innovative logistics system (understood as planning, implementation and control of the effective and efficient flow of information and services). The abovementioned plan involves the whole supply chain. The objective is the experimentation with a decision support system (SSD) that allows the integrated study of the entire supply chain, through the importation of operational data aimed at optimizing processes in a strategic key.
1. EXERCISE OF COOPERATION ACTIVITY
2. NECESSARY STUDIES IN ORDER TO REALIZE THE PLAN ACTIVITY (MARKET,
FEASIBILITY, BUSINESS PLANS, ETC.)
3.SPECIFIC ACTIVITIES LINKED TO THE PLAN REALIZATION
3.1 Experimentation for the precision fruit production
3.2 Study of an innovative model to improve the technical, economic and market
performances of the member
3.3 Definition of objective parameters for product lines
3.4 Testing and verification of the BAC prototype
4. DIVULGATION ACTIVITY
5. TRAINING/CONSULTING ACTIVITY
The objective of this activity is the integration of systems currently available on the market within the technical management process which regulates the relationship between the producing partner and the cooperative and, above all, to integrate them with the decision support system that will be developed in the next phases. The determination and interpretation of the spatio-temporal variability of pedoenvironmental, vegetational and production parameters, are fundamental cornerstones for the application of precision fruit-growing techniques. However, often the analysis and interpretation of the data can be complicated and can present several critical issues, especially with a large amount of data to be translated into practical and managerial indications.
In order to facilitate the activity of data analysis by the farmer / member, an application form will be prepared, integrated on the web portal in order to guarantee the best usability of the instrument, which is functional to the comparison in real time of the data collected from the samples carried out in the field and the company parameters established by Agrintesa. In this way it will be possible to forecast what will be the development at the time of collection.
The product of the action is an application module integrated with a sampling system and technical data detected by the sensors installed at the farm
The activity provides for the definition of a model of decision support system able to integrate the fruit and vegetable supply chain, starting from the experimentation on the subjects that participate in the innovation plan that constitute an excellent level of representativeness of the whole supply chain.
Through a re-elaboration of the data included in the information system of Agrintesa, and the involvement of the other industrial and commercial partners (Conserve Italia, Alfrut, Alegra, Sapori cooperativi) the standards for the management and exchange of information will be identified. A standard protocol will then be developed with which to uniquely identify the product and exchange information throughout the supply chain.
Specifically, the farm, by batch, can consult a series of useful information to understand the main relevant variables in terms of product enhancement. Particular attention will be paid to health-related information on productions, in order to guide the producer towards optimal choices to obtain healthy products. The same information will then be made available to all stages of the value chain in order to improve the processes and the quality level of the productions according to market demands.
The output of the action is the Application Form Decision Support System (SSD) to improve technical performance
In order to characterize the product objectively, each company must identify objective quality attributes that will determine its appreciation of high competition. Once the quality attributes that differentiate the products from those of the competition have been identified, the introduction and application of a set of objective, clear and defined parameters both for producers and players in the value chain and for consumers is envisaged who will be able to recognize the quality of the product consumed.
The definition of these parameters will be carried out considering the attributes that declare the quality of a fruit and vegetable product, identifiable in 5 different macro categories of parameters:
• commercial: size, coloring, resistance to handling, aptitude for conservation
• nutritional: chemical composition of the product in terms of, for example, the presence of vitamins and mineral elements, etc;
• sanitary: absence of chemical residues;
• sensorial: degree of consumer satisfaction;
• authenticity: reliability, safety, origin, genuineness.
The identification of these parameters is strictly functional to the realization of the decision support system model that will be developed, and represents an input of the innovation development process of this plan.
The output of the action is the Report with identification of the reference parameters.
Action 3.4 provides for the definition of a system for transforming data into information in order to integrate and process it to make it available to users. The implemented application module will allow to maximize the usefulness of the available data and increase its value.
A specific feature will also be developed to support the activity of farms in order to allow access beyond the reference data of their productions, including those referring to other companies. In this way it will be possible for individual members to access the reports published on the portal and, by interpreting the innovative performance indicators, to have an overview of the yield of other comparable companies in terms of territorial location and production.
Moreover, thanks to the integration of all the participants of the supply chain involved in the process, the agricultural companies will be able to judge not only the production trend but also the sales performance obtained by other companies in relation to the technical choices and the management of the agricultural phase conducted. The resulting considerations will be invaluable when setting up the next campaign and defining your production objectives in terms of quality, quantity and target market, thus innovating the current business process.
The output of the action is the Decision Support System Application Module (SSD) for Corporate Benchmarking.