Casalasco has always been a pioneer in the precision farming as well as in the sustainable activities and now launches a new highly innovative project for tomato cultivation- in a first experimental stage – with in-the-field employment of the sensor line Smart Smiley created by TEAM, the grouping of enterprises including Studio d’Ingegneria Terradat, Appleby Italiana and Casella Macchine Agricole.
The system, which represents a major development compared to the mapping techniques used by drones, employees the multi-parametric proximity sensor MECS-CROP (Micro Environment and Canopy Sensor, CROP version), installed on the tractor. MECS-CROP, together with MECS-VINE, its vineyard-dedicated equivalent, are two of the sensors of Smart Smiley line, projected, developed and patented to produce vigor maps with even higher level of efficiency and accuracy compared to the previous drones maps.
Consorzio Casalasco del Pomodoro confirms being at the forefront testing the sensors in fertilization and irrigation, equipping itself with a latest-generation system which represents a new frontier in the precision farming and a concrete and immediate solution to the farmer who will get higher yields, higher quality of the product and will cultivate more efficiently with attention to sustainability.
The sensors read the vegetative development of the tomato plant in real time, and allow the farmer to create very precise thematic maps without the involvement of any third party. At the same time, farmer can use the data provided by the sensor as input to the operating machinery, which fulfill the requirements and in real time distributes the exact amount of water and nutritional elements.
This system permits the operator to work, to optimize costs (which are significantly lower than in drone mapping) and to achieve an important reduction in waste and environmental impact.
In the next years, once verified the results of this first experimental stage, Casalasco will apply the system in the majority of farms associated.
“This highly innovative project – states Costantino Vaia, General Manager of Consorzio Casalasco del Pomodoro – is a further element supporting our mission, which evaluates sustainability one of the fundamental pillar of our work.
Casalasco and Pomì have carried out for years concrete actions preserving territory and supply chain, in order reduce more and more the environmental impact, since we have always believed that a sustainable supply chain can grant not only the high quality of the product, but also the development of the involved territories and subjects”.
