Precision agriculture, bioeconomy, new varieties, crop diversification… all this and more in our 2020 corporate report

• Our 2020 corporate report is now available. In it, we bring together our main milestones of the past year and review the most important projects we have been developing.

2020 will remain in our memory as an extremely complicated year due to the pandemic caused by COVID-19. At NEIKER, we wanted to be more than ever in line with the demands of the agricultural and livestock and forestry sector and our customers.

We have adapted quickly to the new scenario and we have continued to offer innovative and transferable solutions to the sector to make it more sustainable and competitive. We have also worked to help it face the challenges that lie ahead, beyond the pandemic: the incorporation of new technologies, digitalisation or the response to market demands. We have not forgotten the adaptation to regulations such as the European Green Pact or the Farm to Fork strategy, compliance with which will help us to combat climate change and move towards a healthier and more sustainable food system.

For this reason, over the past year we have continued to deepen the lines of work initiated in previous years, such as our actions to promote the forest bioeconomy (with projects that promote the transition towards an economy based on biological resources), sustainability (implementing innovative practices on farms) or the mitigation of the climate emergency (with our participation in LIFE URBAN KLIMA 2050, within the Basque Climate Change Strategy 2050).

Forestry research continued to play a major role in our activity in 2020. We have executed the second phase of the Experimental Pilot Plan, testing substances that can combat the red band and the brown band and studying alternative species suitable for our territory, among other actions.

Transferring our knowledge to the sector is part of our DNA and in 2020 it has remained so, despite the circumstances. In close collaboration with the sector and its main agents, we have worked to digitise farms (using Artificial Intelligence to minimise the use of fertilisers or irrigation), diversify crops (such as nut trees or hops), obtain and bring to market new varieties (Beltza and Edurne potatoes) and support local produce (recovering plant varieties in disuse or ensuring the continuous supply of organic beef from the Basque Country).

In addition to these collaborations, we have also carried out some twenty events and webinars, which have been very well received and have focused on current issues for the sector.

All this and much more can be found in our corporate report 2020.