Protection of water resources and agri-food excellence, the commitment of Finish

Victim of increasingly unfavorable climate changes, which determine a progressive reduction of the water available in the soil and a continuous erosion of the land, Italy is a country at risk of desertification and drought, mainly in the southern areas and in the islands. Among the activities most affected by this situation there is undoubtedly agriculture, the reference production sector for the economy of our country. For this reason Finish, on the occasion of the World Day to combat Desertification and Drought which is celebrated on June 17, in collaboration with the Future Food Institute, renews its commitment to support agriculture within the project ‘Water in our hands ‘. The initiative, born in 2019, aims, explains Ludovica Codecasa, head of purpose Council & External Affairs at Reckitt Benckiser, “on the one hand, to continue to inform and sensitize people on the issue of water scarcity and, on the other, to protect the agri-food excellence of the Italian territory “. In particular, after the water refurbishment interventions carried out in Cilento (in the Municipality of Pollica) in 2020 to support the Yellow Tomato and other local agri-food excellence, this year the brand’s activities will be concentrated in the Etna Valley, in the province of Catania, home of the cultivation of Limone dell’Etna Igp. Here, with the decisive support of the Associazione del Limone dell’Etna Igp and the Future Food Institute, an Italian center of excellence on agri-food innovation, Finish will undertake a new intervention to safeguard water, a crucial resource for the protection of the Italian agricultural heritage. “The goal will be to save 100 million liters of water against the 75 million liters we have already achieved with the previous project”. Furthermore, in support of these crops and with the aim of identifying valuable entrepreneurial projects based on the best possible technology to operate the planned interventions, Finish and Future Food Institute have developed, in the period between March and June, a Call for Startup: ” A sort of competition between startups active in smart farming to make crops more efficient. The winning technological innovation will therefore have the opportunity to concretely implement its project on the territory with a loan of 50 thousand euros from Finish “. This year the challenge involved over 15 companies from all over Italy with the aim of identifying the best possible technology to intervene in supporting the cultivation of the Etna IGP lemon. The analysis and evaluation process, which involved a varied jury of experts, led to the definition of a shortlist of 5 startups, from which the best project emerged. Therefore, Smart Island, a reality in the province of Caltanissetta, was ranked first, while two other companies in the sector went up on the podium: Growa and Saba Technology. Smart Island is a company from Niscemi (Cl), founded in 2014, which celebrates its passion for the territory through the use of innovative technologies capable of detecting the needs of crops and providing operators in the agri-food sector with a new paradigm approach to cultivation based on 3 fundamental assets: deep culture of the territory, great versatility in knowing the specific environmental conditions and a technological maturity able to better manage natural resources. As part of the ‘Call For Startup’ initiative, Smart Island presented a project that involves the implementation of Daiki technology: an intelligence and artificial vision robot equipped with image sensors and detection of climate and water data thanks to which it is possible to prevent the development of diseases and to monitor the irrigation needs of plants. The project presented by Smart Island will now be implemented and concretized in a citrus grove in the territory of the Etna Valley. However, the brand’s commitment to protecting Italian agri-food excellence will not be limited to the projects developed in the last two years, but will see a new realization in the course of 2022.