Probelte takes another step forwards in the pursuit for more sustainable fields, developing a digitalization strategy for its treatments.
The soil is one of nature’s most valuable natural resources and irrational management or over-exploitation is a problem which is progressively getting worse. The future of food safety can only be ensured by means of sustainability and the people at Probelte are sure that in order to do this, biotechnology and digitalization must play a major role. «We know that we need to look after the soil so that its production potential can be maintained », explains Camille Bernal, Director of Marketing and communication at Probelte. Due to the nature of her work, she is in direct contact with questions that concern the farmer. «The traditional crop management model is neither financially nor environmentally sustainable any more, as the over-exploitation of fields leads to a loss in the productive capacity of agricultural soil».
«We need to give farmers the tools to evolve towards new concepts of fertilization and a system of preventative biological and nutritional treatments to minimize the need to eradicate plagues or diseases, reduce water consumption and the application of large amounts of chemicals and products at times when they are unnecessary and ineffective. If we do not do this, we could be putting food safety in danger at the very beginning of the food production chain», she points out.
One of the tools used to do this, is biotechnology, thanks to which, efficient, clean, sustainable solutions can be designed, «to reinforce the crop and provide it with the necessary biological functions necessary for optimum plant development. However, in order for biotechnological treatments to be as effective as possible, they need to be adapted to the context of the crop. We are talking about personalizing treatments», the expert points out.
Keeping within these lines, the large amount of data that can be accessed and the processing of this, allows for agricultural processes to be fine-tuned to an unimaginable extent. «If we take a crop of greenhouse peppers, or a fruit crop for example, and imagine that, thanks to predictive models based on a multitude of parameters (physical, chemical and microbiological properties of the soil; climatology; geography; crop variety etc.) we learn so much about its optimum nutritional needs, plague attacks can be predicted, we can then go on to develop preventative treatments to be applied at the ideal time, for each and every crop», highlights Bernal.
This would not only allow for a maximum rationalization of the resources but it would also lead to maximizing crop potential, making it less prone to plague attacks and more resistant to stress, throughout its cycle. This personalization of crop management and the application of treatments would allow for maximum sustainability to be reached. And the only way to do this is by intelligent field management.
All these lines of work are part of the DNA of Probelte, biotechnology being one of the main arms it uses to reach this objective. This, together with a digitalization strategy, will mean it can go even further in its search for a more sustainable countryside.
