[Press release] Continued growth: two new projects for our integration into the French agricultural ecosystem

itk has been working for 15 years to offer the agricultural sector innovative solutions that allow farmers to ensure their production while enhancing their economic situation.

Two new projects will accelerate itk’s development by offering us the possibility of full-scale experimentation in order to propose solutions that are ever closer to the user’s needs.

The Prime Minister announced on September 13, 2019 the results of the call for projects “Innovation Territories” under the Investment for the Future Program (IFP).

A lot of success for itk: the two projects in which we were involved were selected among the 24 selected at the national level.

The first one is Occitanum (Occitanie Agroécologie Numérique), supported by IRSTEA, for Occitanie to become the leader of tomorrow’s agriculture and food by mobilizing digital technologies in an open innovation approach. Occitanum wants to accelerate the transformation of agriculture while meeting societal demand for healthier food. It is about producing healthy and local food, reducing the environmental impact of agriculture through agro-ecological transition, better redistributing added value to farmers and restoring agriculture’s place in society.

This 5-year project aims to develop a field of experimentation, an innovative approach to collective intelligence by creating 7 Living Labs (open innovation laboratory).

itk will be present on 4 of them, each one summarizing an ambition:

1 – Preparing viticulture for climatic and environmental challenges (West Montpellier and Gaillaquois-Tarn).
2 – Supporting field crops towards agro-ecology and diversifying income (Gers, Haute-Garonne)
3 -Produce with sobriety in arboriculture and diversify income (Tarn-et-Garonne and Gard-Hérault limit)
4 -Help the breeding to respect and value the animal well-being (North Occitania – Tarn, Lot, Aveyron- and Ariège)

In addition, the Littoral+ project was also selected under the IAP. itk is associated with the Syndicat Mixte du Bassin de Thau (SMBT), in the Prospect’Eau action. This project aims at coupling Vintel© with the hydrological models already set up by the SMBT at the scale of the Etang de Thau catchment area, in order to better estimate the water needs of the basin’s crops, and the impact of cultivated plots on the basin’s hydrology. This is an opportunity for further deployment of our tools on the scale of a small region, in response to the needs of a new type of user: land use planning organizations.

Press contact:
communication@itk.fr