Smart Agtech Sweden is one of Swedens 15 European Digital Innovation Hub (EDIH) candidates, competing of becoming one of the up to 6 EDIH in Sweden. The proposed hub aims to improve innovation rate of the Swedish agricultural sector by further integrating it with the ICT sector based on 3 pillars: Smart Farming (i.e. Precision Agriculture and Precision Livestock Farming), data analytics using AI, and IoT.
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Low rate of innovation
In line with the overall high levels of digital proficiency in the population, many Swedish farmers are early adopters in automation and monitoring systems to offset high input and labour costs. Despite this rapid transformation among farmers the rate of innovation is estimated to be lower in agriculture and food processing than elsewhere in the Swedish economy with research not being well connected with the needs of the agriculture and food sector (OECD Food and Agricultural Reviews: Innovation, Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability in Sweden, 2018).
Network for stakeholders
Smart Agtech Sweden EDIH will bring together cutting-edge digital technologies with agricultural equipment manufacturers, food producers and advisory organisations to enable the further addition of value-added services to the agricultural sector in Sweden and support further innovation. It is a powerful initiative with the ambition of transforming the Swedish agri-food system into state-of-the-art in terms of sustainability and competitiveness through smart digital technology. The strategy is to disseminate and develop digital technology in agriculture and related ecosystems, focusing on SMEs and the public sector.
Several strong players
Smart Agtech Sweden is an initiative linking Sweden’s leading regional agtech digital innovation nodes and is coordinated by RISE (Research Institutes of Sweden) in collaboration with strong agtech players: Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) and regional platforms in Eastern Central Sweden, Western Sweden and Southern Sweden, namely Agtech 2030 (c/o Linköping University), SmartAgri (c/o Agroväst), Region South (c/o Krinova) and Test bed for digitalized agriculture (c/o RISE). In addition, Visual Sweden (c/o Linköping University) and allied partners are included. Local SMEs will benefit from the hub’s partnership and be offered qualified support for e.g. testing and development of new products and processes.
CONTACT:
Anna Rydberg: anna.rydberg@ri.se
Kristina Anderback: kristina.anderback@agrovast.se