Precision farming Archives

Being equipped with the right methods to assess industry’s rapidly changing innovation will be a key challenge for the European Food Safety Agency, (EFSA), Bernhard Url, the EU food watchdog's chief, told EURACTIV.com in a wide-ranging interview.

The EU aims to create common data spaces to increase the quality of services when it comes to agriculture and healthcare, according to a European Commission data strategy draft seen by EURACTIV.com. In the field of agriculture, inspired by a

Italy's agricultural minister Teresa Bellanova expressed an interest in developing sustainable biotechnology, in the light of a milestone agreement on next-gen biotech between farmers organisation Coldiretti and the Italian Society of Agricultural Genetics (SIGA).

The centrist Renew Europe group in the European Parliament aims to “break taboos” in the agricultural sector, according to one of its Czech deputies, Martin Hlaváček.

The new EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides wants more information about the controversial issue of gene editing and for now, she seems less enthusiastic than her predecessor Vytenis Andriukaitis.

The plant protection part of the upcoming Farm to Fork strategy should take a realistic and science-based approach that allows farmers to “explore all possible solutions”, French conservative MEP Anne Sander told EURACTIV.

When it comes to food, EU policymakers should make science-based decisions if they want to help European their farmers tackle the “legitimate concerns” over sustainability, Sonny Perdue, the US State Secretary of Agriculture, said on Monday (27 January).

Precision farming practices have helped Greek extra virgin olive oil growers keep overhead cost low and ultimately ‘save’ the product from mounting pressure on its market price, EURACTIV Greece’s media partner Ypaithros Chora reported.

In a resolution adopted yesterday, the European Parliament called on the EU executive Commission to beef up its Pollinators Initiative, saying EU-wide mandatory pesticide reduction targets are needed to halt the decline in species.

More than 2,500 scientists across the EU have joined forces and reached out to the EU parliament in a letter urging them to “to act on the science, and undertake a far-reaching reform of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) without delay.”

Although greeted with scepticism at the beginning, precision farming is gaining more and more relevance among farmers and lawmakers. Even EU auditors now extoll the high value of the information provided by digital tools in agriculture.

The discussion over the future of biotechnology in Europe heated up after the EU Court ruled in July last year that gene editing should, in principle, fall under the GMO Directive. We focus on the future of biotechnology in Europe, the regulatory framework of the so-called new plant-breeding techniques, as well as GMOs.

The European left should under no circumstances turn its back on the digital transition of agriculture and give the floor to neoliberal political forces to further “marginalise” smallholders, Petros Kokkalis, a leftist MEP, told EURACTIV.com in an interview.

Agriculture faces many evolving challenges, some from the past and some yet to come.

The European Commission is in an important position to enable EU farmers to use modern technologies in the fight against climate change, Pekka Pesonen, Secretary-General of the EU farmers and cooperatives' association (Copa-Cogeca), told EURACTIV.com.

The rise of Green parties in the last EU elections has raised eyebrows in Brussels, where agriculture stakeholders try to find out what is next in the debate about the future of EU farming.

If we’re going to feed the planet sustainably by the middle of the century, the food has to come in much larger volumes from Asia and Africa, told EURACTIV.com in an interview Simon Winter, head of Syngenta Foundation.

The next European Parliament and Commission will have to deal with a number of important issues related to the future of the European agricultural sector.

The Dutch government has launched a new vision for the country’s agriculture, which prioritises the protection of natural resources and the reduction of the sector's environmental impact.

Over 18 million people across the EU were employed in the bioeconomy in 2015 – mainly in the agriculture, food and beverage sectors, according to the European Commission's Joint Research Centre.

The global environmental challenges are changing too fast and we therefore need speedy reactions too, including innovative plant breeding technologies and digitisation, Alexandra Brand, chief sustainability officer at agri-food giant Syngenta, told EURACTIV.com in an interview.

Close collaboration between scientists, researchers and farmers has helped agriculture in the Czech Republic to take significant digital steps and increase its competitiveness, analysts told EURACTIV Czech Republic.

With the new CAP, the EU Commission is set to foster innovation and digitalisation in agriculture. German companies are hoping for multi-billion euro deals, yet management and infrastructural issues stand in the way.

Although the European Commission and machine manufacturers sing the praises of digitalisation in agriculture, others point to the risk of creating new dependencies for farmers on multinationals. EURACTIV France reports.