Agricultural Valley 4.0: experts' meeting

The concept of the agricultural valley 4.0 project, modern technologies in agriculture and a summary of the study visit to the US – these are the main topics of the first working group meeting on. The Innovation Ecosystem "Agricultural Valley 4.0". The meeting took place on Tuesday, January 17. Among the participants: representatives of business, science and agriculture. The voivodship was represented by: Deputy Marshal Sebastian Łukaszewicz, member of the board of Marek Malinowski and provincial councillor, Chairman of the Seymic Committee on Economic Development and Promotion Paweł Wnukowski.

“We are entering into concrete actions,” said the Deputy Marshal, opening the meeting. “The agricultural valley 4.0 was enrolled in strategic projects of the Podlaskie Voivodeship for the years 2021 – 2027 and it is time to speed up the project. I hope that during our monthly meetings we will be able to develop the formula of this ecosystem and the Agricultural Valley 4.0 will be established soon," he pointed out. Mariusz Dąbrowski, Director of the Investors and Economic Promotion Service at the Marshal Office Regional Innovation Ecosystem "Agri Valley 4.0" explained that the project aims to create the right conditions for the development of modern technologies in three areas: agriculture (AgriTech), food (FoodTech) and health (HealthTech).

It would be based on close cooperation between the technological industries and agriculture in our region. And his job would be to create new concepts and technological solutions and implement them. As a typically agricultural region, with scientific backgrounds and developed food processing, Podlaskie seems to be the ideal place to implement this project.

Mariusz Dąbrowski stressed that the project must have a global scope if it is to produce the expected results. That is why, he pointed out, it is necessary to establish a permanent relationship.  This was one of the objectives of the study visit by the experts of the working group in Silicon Valley. In November 2022, they explored the American innovation ecosystem. During their time in California, they visited technology start-ups, research centers, and held talks at the state legislature and the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA). 

During the first meeting of the Working Group on The Innovation Ecosystem "Agri Valley 4.0" was also referred to as AgriTech, or intelligent solutions in agriculture. A lecture on this subject was given by prof. Andrzej Borusiewicz. Among other things, he emphasized that the world's population is still coming and needs to be fed. And this poses challenges for agriculture, which must be increasingly efficient. It is agriculture 4.0, or agricultural production using new smart technologies, that can help.

The 'Agricultural Valley' project is financed by the regional programme. The next meeting of the working group is scheduled for 21 February.

Group Working Affairs The Innovation Ecosystem "Agricultural Valley 4.0" is an advisory body for the implementation of the Agricultural Valley 4.0 project. Representatives of the largest Polish universities (University of Bialystok, Medical University of Bialystok, Polytechnic of Bialystok, MANS in Łomża), clusters, advisory centres (Polish Centre for Agricultural Advice in Szepietów) and companies from various sectors are involved in the work: manufacturers of agricultural machinery (InterTech, Metal-Fach, Pronar, SaMASZ), the IT industry (Infinity Group, TenderHut), agro-food companies (BioPlant Natura, Edpol Food and Innovation, Agrocentrum).

Aneta Course ed.: Barbara Likowska-Matys photo: Kamil Timoszuk

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