‘Agri-Tech’ Spreading Like Wildfire Across French Farms
Technology can already be found everywhere on French farms, but the so-called “agri-tech” trend wants to push innovation even further. Two hundred fifty of France’s start-ups are already specializing in agriculture and working towards developing software, drones, robots, artificial intelligence, and satellites, EURACTIV reports.
Since the time of draft horses, which were still being used in the 1960s, high-tech has been making its way into European agriculture at a rapid pace. Yet, if horses are making a big comeback for certain farming activities, such as organic viticulture, it is still at a very small scale.
“Today we have almost autonomous tractors, which hardly need drivers anymore,” said Stéphane Marcel, head of digital technology at InVivo. Guidance technologies, the use of satellites to geo-locate operations, but also smartphones, software and even drones are now an integral part of the daily lives of farmers.
In France, agronomic research, which has always been widely supported by public authorities, has now shifted towards what is known as “agri-tech”.
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