Consorzio Barbera d’Asti e Vini del Monferrato invests in research and artificial intelligence

Research in viticulture is fundamental, and when it is shared and “territorial”, it is even more important. Like the one that prompted the Consorzio Barbera d'Asti e Vini del Monferrato, which brings together 400 member wineries and 13 protected appellations, covering more than 10,300 hectares of vineyards, to promote NoviAgri, a project that led to the creation of a prototype of a spray dryer with automatic dispensing of the phytoiatric mixture directly on the vegetation, without dispersion into the environment. “A new technology that will be increasingly central to vineyard management and care, in the future development of viticulture that is learning to take advantage of techniques and scientific developments to combat serious problems and diseases such as flavescence dorée”, a note explains. “Creating a bridge and uniting the great experience of producers and technological progress is a duty, and it will be the responsibility of the Consortium to advance this forward-looking and virtuous union”, explains the newly appointed president Vitaliano Maccario. “Artificial intelligence represents the future and must be integrated into the skilled manual skill that distinguishes the Vigneron of this territory; it is a tool that is becoming fundamental and increasingly indispensable. The spray dryer, after a long phase of experimentation in the vineyard, has proven to be fully functional and can become an ally in managing the flow of phytosanitary product delivery on the rows and leaves, limiting its dispersion on the ground or in the air. What remains under experimentation now is an improvement of the application capable of exploiting artificial intelligence to determine the optimal volume of distribution of treatments in relation to the plant”.
The project, which involved speakers Paolo Gay and Paolo Marucco of the University of Turin-DiSAFA Meccanica Agraria, Giancarlo Spezia of Tecnovict-Spezia, Paolo Mollo of Csp Innovazione nelle Ict, and the Consorzio Barbera d’Asti e Vini del Monferrato, stems from a long period of study of the countless parameters that distinguish a vineyard and that must be taken into account to maximize the administration of treatments. The next step will be to refine the app, putting it at the service of winegrowers and making it easily usable from any phone, so that what happens to each vine can be supervised at all times.
“There has been a lot of work behind this project”, concluded President Maccario. “Today, the Consortium has set clear and important goals for scientific research and protection of the territory. The NoviAgri project is a clear demonstration of the commitment it wants to put in place from here to the future, including in the active involvement and synergies created with institutions, universities, technicians, companies and industries. Ours is a wonderful territory and it is our duty to protect it and offer as much support as possible to those who live it on a daily basis, our winegrowers”.