NEIKER participates in Food 4 Future with solutions and innovation for food and agriculture companies

• The technology centre will take part in the second edition of the international innovation and technology fair Food 4 Future, held on 17 to 19 May at the Bilbao Exhibition Centre

• NEIKER will be present at the ‘Land of Opportunities’ stand of the Basque Government, which will show the aid and support programmes for the creation of new food companies and businesses

• During the fair, researchers from the technology centre will explain NEIKER’s work to bring technology to food and agriculture companies make them more competitive

Knowledge of the most innovative solutions, technologies and trends in the agriculture and food sector is essential for these companies to be able to increase their competitiveness and positioning, even more so in this period in which food production has become a priority at international level due to the effects of climate change.

In this scenario, the NEIKER technology centre, specialising in providing innovative technological solutions for the primary sector, will be present at the international food and technology congress Food 4 Future, which will be held on 17 to 19 May at the Bilbao Exhibition Centre (BEC!) in Barakaldo (Bizkaia). The event has become a platform for discovering the latest trends driving food transformation.

Specifically, NEIKER will be present at the ‘Land of Opportunities’ stand of the Basque Government, which will show the ecosystem of aid and support programmes for the creation of new food companies and businesses offered by the Basque Country: support programmes and backing services for new ideas or businesses; a powerful network of business innovation and research centres for consolidated companies interested in growing or innovating, etc.

Similarly, during the event the technology centre will offer various presentations to raise public awareness of its work to drive a more technological and competitive agriculture and food sector. Concretely, NEIKER researchers will offer four presentations on 17 and 18 May covering different matters on innovation and technology in the food sector such as the transformation of agriculture through science and data, sustainable and regenerative agriculture, and the concept of agroecology.

 

Technology: influencing innovation in agriculture

Firstly, on Tuesday 17 May at 11:00 am, the researcher from the Protection and Crop Production department Gorka Landeras will offer the talk “AGRI-TECH: How is digital and data science transforming agriculture and plant based industries” in which he and other professionals in the sector will explain the development of different technologies in agriculture that aim to optimise food and agriculture processes.

On the same day at 1:00 pm, he will be followed by the researcher Nerea Mandanuliz, from the Animal Production department. During her presentation, entitled “Agri-sus: sustainable and regenerative agriculture”, she will explain to the public how this type of agriculture covers agricultural and livestock practices intended to reverse climate change by reconstructing the soil’s organic matter and restoring the biodiversity of degraded soils. This session will be moderated by Leire Barañano, General Director of NEIKER.

In the afternoon, at 5:30 pm, the researcher from the Natural Resource Conservation department, Haritz Arriaga, will speak about the actions of the food industry to reduce their carbon emissions, in the session “Targeting Zero Carbon in Food”.

The next day, Asier Uribeetxeberria, researcher in Precision Agriculture, in his presentation “Agroecology II: Transition to a sustainable production. Reducing the impact of production enhancers” at 4:30 pm, will explain the concept of agroecology and how to reduce the impact of production enhancers by using smart alternatives to the current productive model.