Start Up's Technology Helps Olive Farmers Cut Costs, Increase Production

Italian olive trees joined the inter­net of things last year when elec­tronic devices took root in their olive groves and began com­mu­ni­cat­ing real-time data via Wi-Fi, to a plat­form devel­oped to help olive pro­duc­ers cut costs and increase their yields.

Elaisian founders Giovanni Di Mambro, Damiano Angelici and Gabriele Allegrini came up with their high-tech solu­tion for olive farm­ers last sum­mer. The trio com­pleted their first pro­to­type in August and went on to found the com­pany in November.

Angelici told Italy Europe 24, ​“I come from a fam­ily that has been work­ing in the olive-grow­ing sec­tor for over 80 years and after the umpteenth lost crop, I decided I’d try and solve the prob­lem.”

In tests, Elaisian’s tech­nol­ogy reduced the costs of fer­til­iz­ers, agro­nomic con­sul­tancy fees, and labor by 50 per­cent. Di Mambro told Olive Oil Times, ​“We made the first test in Sabina, land of olive trees, near Rome.” He added, ​“We did the research thanks to our agron­o­mist and thanks to the University of Perugia that helped us with some stud­ies.”

Remote, real-time mon­i­tor­ing of olive trees was made pos­si­ble by the startup’s small elec­tronic devices. One device on a cen­tral tree in an olive grove mon­i­tors around 500 trees in a 2‑hectare grove. The com­pany offers free devices to farm­ers who sign up for their ser­vice.

Di Mambro told Olive Oil Times, ​“The devices don’t have a name. They are com­posed of a lot of sen­sors in order to col­lect cli­ma­to­log­i­cal data, chloro­phyll and soil com­po­nents.”

Service costs depend on the size of the grove. Elaisian’s user plat­form gives olive pro­duc­ers access to real-time infor­ma­tion on the sta­tus of their trees and offers advice as to any action needed. Communication to farm­ers is via text mes­sage and email.

Elaisian’s devices gather cli­ma­to­log­i­cal data includ­ing rain­fall, humid­ity lev­els, tem­per­a­ture and ana­lyze chloro­phyll and beta-carotene lev­els. The data is trans­mit­ted via Wi-Fi to the company’s plat­form, where it is sci­en­tif­i­cally ana­lyzed. An algo­rithm is devel­oped by cross-ref­er­enc­ing the data received, against agro­nomic data pro­duced in part­ner­ship with Perugia University.

Farmers receive sci­ence-based advice on opti­miz­ing irri­ga­tion and the effec­tive use of fer­til­iz­ers. They are also alerted to nutri­tional defi­cien­cies, attacks by pathogens and any stress the trees are expe­ri­enc­ing. The founders say the sys­tem pre-warns farm­ers of impend­ing dis­eases and enables faster treat­ment when dis­ease strikes.

Di Mambro told Olive Oil Times ​“Four pro­duc­ers are using the sys­tem and 16 oth­ers have paid us to receive it.” He added, ​“We have already signed other agree­ments for exam­ple with Fattoria Ramerino, Olio Torretta, Madonna dell’Olivo and Olio Barnaba.”

“Our goal is to mon­i­tor and pro­tect all olive trees present in the world because they are a resource to be pro­tected. Supporting tech­nol­ogy in the agri­cul­tural sec­tor can achieve impor­tant goals like that of max­i­miz­ing pro­duc­tion and improv­ing processes of cul­ti­va­tion for each olive oil pro­ducer. It is essen­tial for us to defend and to advance an asset as valu­able as extra vir­gin olive oil.”

Elaisian’s plan for the future is to get more major Italian pro­duc­ers on board, then intro­duce their tech­nol­ogy to the Spanish mar­ket.

• Italy Europe 24


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