In the March issue of Fruits, vegetables and flowers you will find the opinion article entitled “The role of InnovPlantProtect in Organic Farming: Paths to sustainable and efficient solutions”, in which the executive director of InnovPlantProtect (InPP), António Saraiva, reveals how our CoLAB is contributing to the success of organic farming.
“By boosting research, collaboration and knowledge sharing, InPP is helping to solve the central challenges of this practice [organic farming], allowing it to expand and enhancing the supply of agricultural products to consumers. The solutions developed by InPP make organic farming a more viable option for producers,” says the executive director.
Read the full article and find out how we are shaping the future of agriculture.
We thank Frutas, legumes e flores magazine for its recognition and reiterate our commitment to the agriculture of the future.
Imagine a future where drones and artificial intelligence work together to protect your vineyards. That's what the AI4Leafhopper project is making a reality!
Manisha Sirsat, a researcher on the AI4Leafhopper team, has developed two artificial intelligence models that analyze the aerial images captured by our latest generation drone... and these models make it possible:
geolocation of each vine
to know if there are vine failures
quickly identify “sick” vines”
optimize the application of treatments
The result? Growers can have a detailed view of the health of their vineyards, detect problems early and make more informed decisions.
AI4Leafhopper is a project led by InPP and funded by the ICAERUS Horizon Europe program, which began in April 2024 and ended on April 30 with a final meeting involving the six European projects approved in the 1st edition of the ICAERUS program's PULL applications. The project team presented the AI-based models for detecting and monitoring the impact of the green leafhopper on vineyards.
The AI4Leafhopper project, InnovPlantProtect used a state-of-the-art drone to monitor the impact of the green leafhopper in the vineyards of our partners Reynolds Wine Growers and João Portugal Ramos. Although the results show that this advanced technology is more effective at detecting attacks at advanced stages, we are excited about the potential of this tool to provide valuable data for the management of this harmful insect.
We believe that with more research, we can refine our solution to detect early attacks and prevent significant damage to vineyards. Transforming the monitoring of this pest is where we want to go, always with the aim of protecting vineyards and guaranteeing the quality of production for winegrowers.
Over the next few days we'll be revealing everything that the AI4Leafhopper project is making a reality and how drones and artificial intelligence are working together to create a more sustainable future for viticulture. Stay tuned!
AI4Leafhopper, funded by the ICAERUS Horizon Europe program, which began in April 2024, is now in its final stages. The development phase of the project, which took place in the field, is now over and the final stage is to present the solutions developed by our team on Portuguese soil to the market.
InnovPlantProtect (InPP) is participating for the first time in the 56th edition of AGRO - International Agricultural, Livestock and Food Fair, which takes place from March 21st to 24th, no Altice Forum Braga. The professional agricultural fair brings together the main players in the agricultural and agri-food sectors, with the aim of promoting debate and sharing knowledge about the circular economy, natural resource management and innovation in agricultural and food production. InPP will be present with its own stand which aims to be a networking space that will showcase the innovative bio-based and digital solutions available for protecting crops against pests and diseases.
Image credits: Altice Forum Braga
The collaborative laboratory (CoLAB) will welcome visitors at the stand no. F88, among the 10 a.m. and 8 p.m., At the fair, InPP's researchers will be on hand to showcase their activities, the specific bio-based and digital products and services they have to offer the agricultural sector and the market, and the various projects underway. Throughout the four days of the fair, some of InPP's researchers will be at the stand to show visitors the various features of the Elvas CoLAB, which has developed innovation that it hopes will contribute to the sustainability of agricultural systems.
Other topics and services in the spotlight will be microbiome analysis, the development of strategies to obtain plants that are more resistant to pests and diseases and risk models, molecular identification and diagnosis services, in vitro plant establishment and maintenance services, plant variety genotyping services, the application of artificial intelligence and drone image analysis to develop early detection tools for various fungi, the monitoring and diagnosis of pests in various crops, as well as the Xyllela fastidiosa bacterium, GIS-based decision support systems, among many others.
AGRO, one of the largest fairs in the agricultural sector, the most important in the north of the country, and the only Portuguese fair to be part of Eurasco - European Federation of Agricultural Exhibitions and Show Organizers, is promoted annually. In 2023, the fair, organized by InvestBraga - Agência para a Dinamização Económica and the Municipality of Braga, had more than 200 exhibitors and was visited by more than 45,000 visitors.
Ricardo Pinheiro and the other Socialist Party (PS) candidates for the Portalegre constituency in the Portuguese Parliament visited InnovPlantProtect (InPP) in Elvas on Wednesday, March 6, with the aim not only of getting to know the collaborative laboratory's facilities and technological equipment, but also of sharing information and exchanging ideas on how the work of the InsectERA Mobilizing Agenda is progressing.
The delegation was welcomed by InPP's executive director, Pedro Fevereiro, and Daniel Murta, EntoGreen's managing director and chairman of the board.
The visit began with an informal and relaxed conversation between all those involved. Daniel Murta opened the visit by giving a brief presentation of the mobilizing agenda, identifying the objectives, as well as the commitment between the 42 entities involved, with the main aim of creating a new bioindustrial sector in Portugal using insects as a tool for developing new services and products in areas such as animal and human food, the cosmetics industry, or bioplastics and as bioremediation tools, by creating solutions for recovering organic waste.
The Chairman of the Board of EntoGreen, the leader of the agenda, also emphasized the funding of 43 million euros and the importance it will have for the district of Portalegre, the Alentejo region and the country, highlighting the 50 new jobs that have been created in the region as part of the agenda.
EntoGreen's CEO said that the InsetERA agenda “has the ambition to foster the circular economy, leverage the development of innovative insect-based technological solutions for the market and build new factories that will convert olive pomace into fertilizers, proteins and oils through the use of insects”.
It's worth remembering that olive pomace is a polluting by-product and a concern for olive oil producers, which can be transformed into nutritional solutions for plants and animals. Daniel Murta goes on to describe the process: “Best of all, part of this pomace can even be returned to the soil that generated the olives, in the form of organic fertilizers that enrich the soil, closing the cycle of nutrients that would otherwise be wasted.”
EntoGreen's CEO took the opportunity to call for continued joint work with the government to implement the agenda and also warned against “rethinking the extension of the completion date” of the agenda, since the date stipulated when the project application was accepted “could jeopardize the success of the Agenda”.
The executive director of InPP began by emphasizing the team of more than 40 researchers, from various nationalities, who work in the Elvense collaborative laboratory and presented the innovation around plant protection and the challenges facing agriculture to reduce the use of insecticides in national and European agriculture, as required by the European Green Deal. Green Deal, in English).
The delegation proceeded to the greenhouse, which was restored at the end of last year, where they were welcomed by Leonor Martins, a researcher from InPP's Specific Crop Protection department, who explained the work being carried out by the team to assess how these end products, which are derived from insects, produce high-value products, including those for plant and soil protection.
InPP leads the InFrass axis, one of the Agenda's nine axes, which aims to use insects as a tool for creating new, sustainable, high-quality organic fertilizers adapted to the agricultural challenges of the future.
The visit ended with a tour of the CoLAB laboratories, where it was possible to meet Hamza Chammem, a researcher from the Formulations and Process Development department, of Tunisian origin, who moved with his family to Elvas to start working at InPP. Hamza is developing to “proof of concept” or prototype level, formulations to deliver biological protection agents, designed to protect crops against pests and diseases.
Ricardo Pinheiro was enthusiastic about the facilities and the work carried out by the InPP team as part of InsectERA. The candidate considered it “very important” for the PS campaign to visit CoLAB and assured that this is a project with “added value for the local economy”. He also said he was “very pleased” to realize that it is possible, from Alto Alentejo and Elvas in this case, to “design projects on this scale”.
The director of InnovPlantProtect's New Biopesticides department, Cristina Azevedo, will take part in the next “MED às 4as” (MED on Wednesdays), on March 6, a round table organized by the MED - Mediterranean Institute for Agriculture, Environment and Development, on “From research to application: the path of knowledge from R&D institutions to Industry”.
The round table aims to deepen understanding of the ways in which technological innovation developed in public and private institutions is implemented so that in the future we can optimize the processes associated with applications for protection and maintenance of intellectual and industrial property rights. The idea is to help researchers explore the commercial potential of their ideas and results, make contacts with industry, and expand the impact of research by promoting the transition of their discoveries and inventions from the laboratory and the field to the benefits of real life.
In addition to Cristina Azevedo, the round table will also bring together Vanda Rebelo, head of the Scientific Activities Management Division at the University of Évora, Bruno Medronho, MED researcher at the University of the Algarve, and Susana Filipe, executive director of the CHANGE Associated Laboratory, specialists in the various areas of technology, from research to the production and licensing of patents, to explore the strategy of building an effective link between innovation and utility, which reinvigorates the transfer of knowledge between the university, industry and society. The moderator will be Patrick Materatski, researcher at MED.
The session will take place in person in the Conference Room of the Mitra Pole, at the University of Évora, between 2pm and 3pm, but it is also possible to watch it via Zoom.
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