Agriculture in North Africa, technologies and cooperation

A conference dedicated to the countries of the northern belt of the African continent, which have significant growth potential in the primary sector but need new-generation machinery and systems, was held as part of Agrilevante. Collaboration with the Italian agro-mechanical industry and with bodies dealing with technical assistance and vocational training is very promising

«Bari's exhibition can become a laboratory for cooperation and collaborations between Mediterranean countries, and Italian companies are the most entitled for this collaboration because they have in flexibility and breadth of range their strong point." This was how FederUnacoma President Mariateresa Maschio opened the proceedings of the conference on "Agriculture in North Africa: characteristics, potential and technological needs" held on the second day of Agrilevante on October 6.

Gianfranco Belgrano, editorial director of the monthly magazine Africa e Affari (Africa and Business), was moderating the meeting. For this very occasion, the magazine published a special issue dedicated to the economy and opportunities offered by the countries in this area: Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. For each country, the publication contains a fact sheet framing the economic and political situation, with a special focus on the agricultural sector, including a description of the local business structure, the development programs being financed and specific needs in terms of technology and equipment.

The entire continent, not just northern Africa to which the conference and the monographic publication are dedicated, shares one cha­racteristic: a great desire for novelty. Belgrano introdu­ced the topic, talking about the opportunities that the area offers precisely to companies that can provide innovative solutions. Due in part to the average age of the inhabitants, which is much lower than in Europe, innovative technologies are finding a good reception among local people, who are already showing some familiarity with digitization in such crucial areas as electronic payments and telecommunications.

Why, then, in such a receptive environment, has agriculture not yet achieved a better level of technological innovation than it does today?

According to Belgrano, there are at least two good reasons. The first is economic-financial, since most often, small family businesses or very small farms are cultivating the land. The other reason has to do with climatic characteristics and the presence of vast desert territories, where making the land fertile requires substantial investment and complex techniques, often still in the experimental stage. The Africa and Business fact sheets also provide information on the main programs of financial support for agriculture initiated by both local governments and international bodies. Many of these interventions are geared precisely toward irrigating part of the desert and experimenting with crops suitable for these soils.

Underlying technological development, even in agriculture, is research and training. Entrepreneurs' and workers' lack of knowledge of local realities, in Europe as well as in developing countries, holds back the diffusion of recent technologies or, even worse, thwarts investments made because the most advanced equipment is used without taking advantage of the functions that would make work in the fields more effective and productive.

This is precisely what the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Bari, Ciheam (Centre International de Hautes Etudes Agronomiques Méditerranéennes), which was present at the conference to give a summary of the programs implemented in various parts of the world, is concerned with.

" We are an intergovernmental organization made up of ministries of agriculture from thirteen Mediterranean countries," said Mara Semeraro, technical advisor to the Apulian structure, "with a general secretariat in Paris and four agronomic institutes located, in addition to Bari, in Chania, Montpellier and Zaragoza. Our main mission is training, but for several years, we have also been involved in development cooperation and applied research in cooperation. Besides precision agriculture, biodiversity enhancement and blue economy, we are also involved in youth entrepreneurship. Since 1962, we have trained more than 13 thousand ministerial executives from more than a hundred countries. Of these, many have gone on to become prominent figures, sometimes even ministers in their respective countries."

Currently, there are five two-year master's courses and two highly specialized courses, those on organic agriculture and sustainable ecosystems, on the Bari campus. The former students form an international network that stays in touch after completing their experience within Ciheam to exchange experiences and technical updates. This worldwide network currently has 10,000 members coming from 57 countries.

"In Egypt, we have implemented, thanks also to the collaboration of FederUnacoma, the Samsimifa project," said Semeraro, "for which we had a total budget of 10 million euros financed by Italian Cooperation. Eight million was used for purchasing farm machinery and the other two for technical assistance, which we did precisely by starting from the needs of the territory. An area where mechanization services were few and, therefore, distant from farms. An area where mechanization services were few and, therefore, distant from farms. We involved the 512 agricultural cooperatives in the area and selected some of them to whom we provided the necessary training. Hence, these have become mechanization stations. We have generated a new form of management of technical assistance services and have managed to create a network between public institutions and the private sector." But when we talk about specialized mechanization, what exactly are we referring to for an area whose borders are the Mediterranean on one side and the desert on the other? Davide Gnesini, head of FederUnacoma's technical service, explained.

"We need to start with the main crops and, from there, derive a supply chain starting with the tractors and continuing with soil preparation, planting, irrigation, plant protection and, finally, harvesting and handling. And among the crops already present, we immediately see olive trees, followed by citrus and cereals. Next, there is cotton, especially in Egypt; sugar, both from cane and beet; potatoes; and so on. Yet, there are crops that we are not very familiar with that pose real challenges in terms of mechanization. For example, date harvesting is done by hand, with operators climbing to the top of the trees. Or avocado and mango trees, which are close to our common apple trees, or even pineapples, which present the greatest challenges in terms of mechanization."

Gnesini showed pictures of some narrow, compact orchard and vineyard tractors of a size suitable for some specific realities, including, precisely, olive groves and orchards. In Italy, some machines only work the strips of land on which the crop is planted, leaving the neighboring land undisturbed. These can help to implement the principles of conservation agriculture, thus warding off the risk of desertification.

Another trend that fits well in the North African area, along with the optimization of water resources, is the reduction of pesticide use.

"Baying machines, followed by mulchers, are suitable for pineapple cultivation and retain soil moisture with a double advantage: avoiding excessive evaporation, they prevent weeds from disturbing the crop that you then want to harvest.

A particularly suitable technology in these areas is tillage, that is, without the need to do any preliminary tillage of the soil.

For tomatoes, which are at the top of the vegetables in terms of the large quantity produced and exported, there are transplanters. These are so-called facilitating machines; that is, they do not exclude the presence of an operator, but one who is assigned an entirely different control task from the manual one that would instead have a heavy impact on health.

But if the underlying problem remains that of water shortage, what answers can the mechanization industry provide in the immediate term?

"When it comes to irrigation, the main parameter is efficiency. For example, with submergence, the efficiency is very low and comes to a quarter between what I draw and what gets to the plant. Manufacturers are working to increase distribution efficiency by reducing the effort of rewinding the pipeline. We have a machine called a pivot on which systems called lepa (low energy precision application) have been introduced that are lowered to the ground to reach the crop at a closer point and reduce, thus, evaporation and dispersion."

Even in the case of irrigation, and for all the technologies considered, the use of digital in agriculture must still be considered, which, it was reiterated during the conference, "is not to be left to a hypothetical tomorrow, but to be used today because you cannot irrigate in an optimized way if you do not take into account the specific situation of the field." And this can only be done with the information you get from sensors, which is digital.

The excellence of Italian producers, repeatedly recalled during the talks, is best manifested in harvesting machines. As an example, the whole interceptor umbrella was shown. It is an automated shaker for olive trees, with which there is no need to spread the classic net on the ground.

For orchards, with mango trees, avocado trees, and the like, there are so-called facilitators: platforms that extend in height and allow approaching the plant canopy while working safely and, at the same time, moving forward.

Finally, innovative solutions are also available for cotton, with two types of machines: the stripper, which leaves only the skeleton to the plant, and the picker, which picks only the mature part of the cotton from the open capsules.

These are just some of the examples of how the Italian industry is particularly attuned to the needs of these countries.

Italian industry already meets a significant share of machinery needs in the region: in 2022 alone, Made in Italy covered 10 percent of the demand for technologies in Egypt, 27.5 percent in Tunisia and 26 percent in Morocco. "The partnership between northern and southern Mediterranean countries is one of the key elements to unlock their production potential," concluded Gianfranco Belgrano, "and on mechanization processes, Italy has a lot to offer thanks to an industry that is characterized by high international standards.

Bari's exhibition can become a laboratory for cooperation and collaborations between Mediterranean countries, and Italian companies are the most entitled for this collaboration because they have in flexibility and breadth of range their strong point." This was how FederUnacoma President Mariateresa Maschio opened the proceedings of the conference on "Agriculture in North Africa: characteristics, potential and technological needs" held on the second day of Agrilevante on October 6.

Gianfranco Belgrano, editorial director of the monthly magazine Africa e affari (Africa and Business), was moderating the meeting. For this very occasion, the magazine published a special issue dedicated to the economy and opportunities offered by the countries in this area: Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. For each country, the publication contains a fact sheet framing the economic and political situation, with a special focus on the agricultural sector, including a description of the local business structure, the development programs being financed and specific needs in terms of technology and equipment.

The entire continent, not just northern Africa to which the conference and the monographic publication are dedicated, shares one cha­racteristic: a great desire for novelty. Belgrano introdu­ced the topic, talking about the opportunities that the area offers precisely to companies that can provide innovative solutions. Due in part to the average age of the inhabitants, which is much lower than in Europe, innovative technologies are finding a good reception among local people, who are already showing some familiarity with digitization in such crucial areas as electronic payments and telecommunications.

Why, then, in such a receptive environment, has agriculture not yet achieved a better level of technological innovation than it does today?

According to Belgrano, there are at least two good reasons. The first is economic-financial, since most often, small family businesses or very small farms are cultivating the land. The other reason has to do with climatic characteristics and the presence of vast desert territories, where making the land fertile requires substantial investment and complex techniques, often still in the experimental stage. The Africa and Business fact sheets also provide information on the main programs of financial support for agriculture initiated by both local governments and international bodies. Many of these interventions are geared precisely toward irrigating part of the desert and experimenting with crops suitable for these soils.

Underlying technological development, even in agriculture, is research and training. Entrepreneurs' and workers' lack of knowledge of local realities, in Europe as well as in developing countries, holds back the diffusion of recent technologies or, even worse, thwarts investments made because the most advanced equipment is used without taking advantage of the functions that would make work in the fields more effective and productive.

This is precisely what the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Bari, Ciheam (Centre International de Hautes Etudes Agronomiques Méditerranéennes), which was present at the conference to give a summary of the programs implemented in various parts of the world, is concerned with.

" We are an intergovernmental organization made up of ministries of agriculture from thirteen Mediterranean countries," said Mara Semeraro, technical advisor to the Apulian structure, "with a general secretariat in Paris and four agronomic institutes located, in addition to Bari, in Chania, Montpellier and Zaragoza. Our main mission is training, but for several years, we have also been involved in development cooperation and applied research in cooperation. Besides precision agriculture, biodiversity enhancement and blue economy, we are also involved in youth entrepreneurship. Since 1962, we have trained more than 13 thousand ministerial executives from more than a hundred countries. Of these, many have gone on to become prominent figures, sometimes even ministers in their respective countries."

Currently, there are five two-year master's courses and two highly specialized courses, those on organic agriculture and sustainable ecosystems, on the Bari campus. The former students form an international network that stays in touch after completing their experience within Ciheam to exchange experiences and technical updates. This worldwide network currently has 10,000 members coming from 57 countries.

"In Egypt, we have implemented, thanks also to the collaboration of FederUnacoma, the Samsimifa project," said Semeraro, "for which we had a total budget of 10 million euros financed by Italian Cooperation. Eight million was used for purchasing farm machinery and the other two for technical assistance, which we did precisely by starting from the needs of the territory. An area where mechanization services were few and, therefore, distant from farms. An area where mechanization services were few and, therefore, distant from farms. We involved the 512 agricultural cooperatives in the area and selected some of them to whom we provided the necessary training. Hence, these have become mechanization stations. We have generated a new form of management of technical assistance services and have managed to create a network between public institutions and the private sector." But when we talk about specialized mechanization, what exactly are we referring to for an area whose borders are the Mediterranean on one side and the desert on the other? Davide Gnesini, head of FederUnacoma's technical service, explained.

"We need to start with the main crops and, from there, derive a supply chain starting with the tractors and continuing with soil preparation, planting, irrigation, plant protection and, finally, harvesting and handling. And among the crops already present, we immediately see olive trees, followed by citrus and cereals. Next, there is cotton, especially in Egypt; sugar, both from cane and beet; potatoes; and so on. Yet, there are crops that we are not very familiar with that pose real challenges in terms of mechanization. For example, date harvesting is done by hand, with operators climbing to the top of the trees. Or avocado and mango trees, which are close to our common apple trees, or even pineapples, which present the greatest challenges in terms of mechanization."

Gnesini showed pictures of some narrow, compact orchard and vineyard tractors of a size suitable for some specific realities, including, precisely, olive groves and orchards. In Italy, some machines only work the strips of land on which the crop is planted, leaving the neighboring land undisturbed. These can help to implement the principles of conservation agriculture, thus warding off the risk of desertification.

Another trend that fits well in the North African area, along with the optimization of water resources, is the reduction of pesticide use.

"Baying machines, followed by mulchers, are suitable for pineapple cultivation and retain soil moisture with a double advantage: avoiding excessive evaporation, they prevent weeds from disturbing the crop that you then want to harvest.

A particularly suitable technology in these areas is tillage, that is, without the need to do any preliminary tillage of the soil.

For tomatoes, which are at the top of the vegetables in terms of the large quantity produced and exported, there are transplanters. These are so-called facilitating machines; that is, they do not exclude the presence of an operator, but one who is assigned an entirely different control task from the manual one that would instead have a heavy impact on health.

But if the underlying problem remains that of water shortage, what answers can the mechanization industry provide in the immediate term?

"When it comes to irrigation, the main parameter is efficiency. For example, with submergence, the efficiency is very low and comes to a quarter between what I draw and what gets to the plant. Manufacturers are working to increase distribution efficiency by reducing the effort of rewinding the pipeline. We have a machine called a pivot on which systems called lepa (low energy precision application) have been introduced that are lowered to the ground to reach the crop at a closer point and reduce, thus, evaporation and dispersion."

Even in the case of irrigation, and for all the technologies considered, the use of digital in agriculture must still be considered, which, it was reiterated during the conference, "is not to be left to a hypothetical tomorrow, but to be used today because you cannot irrigate in an optimized way if you do not take into account the specific situation of the field." And this can only be done with the information you get from sensors, which is digital.

The excellence of Italian producers, repeatedly recalled during the talks, is best manifested in harvesting machines. As an example, the whole interceptor umbrella was shown. It is an automated shaker for olive trees, with which there is no need to spread the classic net on the ground.

For orchards, with mango trees, avocado trees, and the like, there are so-called facilitators: platforms that extend in height and allow approaching the plant canopy while working safely and, at the same time, moving forward.

Finally, innovative solutions are also available for cotton, with two types of machines: the stripper, which leaves only the skeleton to the plant, and the picker, which picks only the mature part of the cotton from the open capsules.

These are just some of the examples of how the Italian industry is particularly attuned to the needs of these countries.

Italian industry already meets a significant share of machinery needs in the region: in 2022 alone, Made in Italy covered 10 percent of the demand for technologies in Egypt, 27.5 percent in Tunisia and 26 percent in Morocco. "The partnership between northern and southern Mediterranean countries is one of the key elements to unlock their production potential," concluded Gianfranco Belgrano, "and on mechanization processes, Italy has a lot to offer thanks to an industry that is characterized by high international standards.

Bari's exhibition can become a laboratory for cooperation and collaborations between Mediterranean countries, and Italian companies are the most entitled for this collaboration because they have in flexibility and breadth of range their strong point." This was how FederUnacoma President Mariateresa Maschio opened the proceedings of the conference on "Agriculture in North Africa: characteristics, potential and technological needs" held on the second day of Agrilevante on October 6.

Gianfranco Belgrano, editorial director of the monthly magazine Africa e affari (Africa and Business), was moderating the meeting. For this very occasion, the magazine published a special issue dedicated to the economy and opportunities offered by the countries in this area: Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. For each country, the publication contains a fact sheet framing the economic and political situation, with a special focus on the agricultural sector, including a description of the local business structure, the development programs being financed and specific needs in terms of technology and equipment.

The entire continent, not just northern Africa to which the conference and the monographic publication are dedicated, shares one cha­racteristic: a great desire for novelty. Belgrano introdu­ced the topic, talking about the opportunities that the area offers precisely to companies that can provide innovative solutions. Due in part to the average age of the inhabitants, which is much lower than in Europe, innovative technologies are finding a good reception among local people, who are already showing some familiarity with digitization in such crucial areas as electronic payments and telecommunications.

Why, then, in such a receptive environment, has agriculture not yet achieved a better level of technological innovation than it does today?

According to Belgrano, there are at least two good reasons. The first is economic-financial, since most often, small family businesses or very small farms are cultivating the land. The other reason has to do with climatic characteristics and the presence of vast desert territories, where making the land fertile requires substantial investment and complex techniques, often still in the experimental stage. The Africa and Business fact sheets also provide information on the main programs of financial support for agriculture initiated by both local governments and international bodies. Many of these interventions are geared precisely toward irrigating part of the desert and experimenting with crops suitable for these soils.

Underlying technological development, even in agriculture, is research and training. Entrepreneurs' and workers' lack of knowledge of local realities, in Europe as well as in developing countries, holds back the diffusion of recent technologies or, even worse, thwarts investments made because the most advanced equipment is used without taking advantage of the functions that would make work in the fields more effective and productive.

This is precisely what the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Bari, Ciheam (Centre International de Hautes Etudes Agronomiques Méditerranéennes), which was present at the conference to give a summary of the programs implemented in various parts of the world, is concerned with.

" We are an intergovernmental organization made up of ministries of agriculture from thirteen Mediterranean countries," said Mara Semeraro, technical advisor to the Apulian structure, "with a general secretariat in Paris and four agronomic institutes located, in addition to Bari, in Chania, Montpellier and Zaragoza. Our main mission is training, but for several years, we have also been involved in development cooperation and applied research in cooperation. Besides precision agriculture, biodiversity enhancement and blue economy, we are also involved in youth entrepreneurship. Since 1962, we have trained more than 13 thousand ministerial executives from more than a hundred countries. Of these, many have gone on to become prominent figures, sometimes even ministers in their respective countries."

Currently, there are five two-year master's courses and two highly specialized courses, those on organic agriculture and sustainable ecosystems, on the Bari campus. The former students form an international network that stays in touch after completing their experience within Ciheam to exchange experiences and technical updates. This worldwide network currently has 10,000 members coming from 57 countries.

"In Egypt, we have implemented, thanks also to the collaboration of FederUnacoma, the Samsimifa project," said Semeraro, "for which we had a total budget of 10 million euros financed by Italian Cooperation. Eight million was used for purchasing farm machinery and the other two for technical assistance, which we did precisely by starting from the needs of the territory. An area where mechanization services were few and, therefore, distant from farms. An area where mechanization services were few and, therefore, distant from farms. We involved the 512 agricultural cooperatives in the area and selected some of them to whom we provided the necessary training. Hence, these have become mechanization stations. We have generated a new form of management of technical assistance services and have managed to create a network between public institutions and the private sector." But when we talk about specialized mechanization, what exactly are we referring to for an area whose borders are the Mediterranean on one side and the desert on the other? Davide Gnesini, head of FederUnacoma's technical service, explained.

"We need to start with the main crops and, from there, derive a supply chain starting with the tractors and continuing with soil preparation, planting, irrigation, plant protection and, finally, harvesting and handling. And among the crops already present, we immediately see olive trees, followed by citrus and cereals. Next, there is cotton, especially in Egypt; sugar, both from cane and beet; potatoes; and so on. Yet, there are crops that we are not very familiar with that pose real challenges in terms of mechanization. For example, date harvesting is done by hand, with operators climbing to the top of the trees. Or avocado and mango trees, which are close to our common apple trees, or even pineapples, which present the greatest challenges in terms of mechanization."

Gnesini showed pictures of some narrow, compact orchard and vineyard tractors of a size suitable for some specific realities, including, precisely, olive groves and orchards. In Italy, some machines only work the strips of land on which the crop is planted, leaving the neighboring land undisturbed. These can help to implement the principles of conservation agriculture, thus warding off the risk of desertification.

Another trend that fits well in the North African area, along with the optimization of water resources, is the reduction of pesticide use.

"Baying machines, followed by mulchers, are suitable for pineapple cultivation and retain soil moisture with a double advantage: avoiding excessive evaporation, they prevent weeds from disturbing the crop that you then want to harvest.

A particularly suitable technology in these areas is tillage, that is, without the need to do any preliminary tillage of the soil.

For tomatoes, which are at the top of the vegetables in terms of the large quantity produced and exported, there are transplanters. These are so-called facilitating machines; that is, they do not exclude the presence of an operator, but one who is assigned an entirely different control task from the manual one that would instead have a heavy impact on health.

But if the underlying problem remains that of water shortage, what answers can the mechanization industry provide in the immediate term?

"When it comes to irrigation, the main parameter is efficiency. For example, with submergence, the efficiency is very low and comes to a quarter between what I draw and what gets to the plant. Manufacturers are working to increase distribution efficiency by reducing the effort of rewinding the pipeline. We have a machine called a pivot on which systems called lepa (low energy precision application) have been introduced that are lowered to the ground to reach the crop at a closer point and reduce, thus, evaporation and dispersion."

Even in the case of irrigation, and for all the technologies considered, the use of digital in agriculture must still be considered, which, it was reiterated during the conference, "is not to be left to a hypothetical tomorrow, but to be used today because you cannot irrigate in an optimized way if you do not take into account the specific situation of the field." And this can only be done with the information you get from sensors, which is digital.

The excellence of Italian producers, repeatedly recalled during the talks, is best manifested in harvesting machines. As an example, the whole interceptor umbrella was shown. It is an automated shaker for olive trees, with which there is no need to spread the classic net on the ground.

For orchards, with mango trees, avocado trees, and the like, there are so-called facilitators: platforms that extend in height and allow approaching the plant canopy while working safely and, at the same time, moving forward.

Finally, innovative solutions are also available for cotton, with two types of machines: the stripper, which leaves only the skeleton to the plant, and the picker, which picks only the mature part of the cotton from the open capsules.

These are just some of the examples of how the Italian industry is particularly attuned to the needs of these countries.

Italian industry already meets a significant share of machinery needs in the region: in 2022 alone, Made in Italy covered 10 percent of the demand for technologies in Egypt, 27.5 percent in Tunisia and 26 percent in Morocco. "The partnership between northern and southern Mediterranean countries is one of the key elements to unlock their production potential," concluded Gianfranco Belgrano, "and on mechanization processes, Italy has a lot to offer thanks to an industry that is characterized by high international standards.