agROBOfood in Italy

At the beginning of the year, we were busy packing for an expedition as part of Crover’s involvement in the agROBOfood project. A small team from our office left Edinburgh to evaluate the current version of the CROVER system at a number of test sites at several different locations across Italy. The two weeks worth of testing we undertook in Italy were hugely successful for Crover and  gave us lots to work with going forward.

The first stop was near Pavia not far from Milan in the north of Italy and a province notable for its rice production. From there, Crover moved east into the region of Veneto - famous for its large-scale production of soy, corn and other grains. Veneto is also known for its storage capacity, reflected in the considerable numbers of different sheds and silos in the area. Some sheds make use of grain levellers intended to keep the grain in order and optimise conditions. Surveying different storage configurations like these is very useful as it will allow us to ensure that the CROVER system can be installed without interrupting existing operations.

Nearing the end of the trip, Crover moved south along the east coast of Italy to the penultimate test site in the region of Molise, known for production of various types of wheat, including the hard durum wheat used in pasta. The final site we visited was located further south near Altamura, where the bread known as Pane di Altamura originates.

The time Crover spent testing in Italy was a great success, demonstrating that the current systems are operating well and that good progress has been made. Over the next few months we will be working hard to implement what we have learned, before our eventual return to Italy for more testing in the summer. All of us at Crover would like to thank our consortium partners, namely at Istituto Cooperativo di Ricerca (ICR) and Neoruralehub. We would also like to thank agROBOfood for their continued support and for making the tests in Italy possible.