Towards a backdrop of rising international demand for meals and intensifying local weather challenges, greater than 500 scientists, engineers, and trade professionals from 43 nations have converged on Barcelona this week to open the fifteenth European Convention on Precision Agriculture (ECPA 2025). The occasion, hosted for the primary time within the Catalan capital, alerts a robust dedication from establishments throughout Europe to the modernization of agriculture by digital instruments and scientific analysis.
The opening ceremony occurred Monday morning on the Vèrtex Auditorium, on the Campus Nord of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya – BarcelonaTech (UPC). Attending dignitaries included Begoña García, Spain’s Secretary of State for Agriculture and Meals; Òscar Ordeig,
Minister of Local weather Motion, Meals and Rural Agenda for the Authorities of Catalonia; and Luis Vivas-Alegre, Head of Sector on the European Fee’s Directorate-Common for Agriculture and Rural Improvement.
“Spain has develop into one of many world’s most superior nations in agricultural know-how,” García mentioned in her opening deal with. “This convention is proof of that. We aren’t simply right here to alternate information—we’re right here to reaffirm a political conviction: agriculture shouldn’t be a relic of the previous. It’s a cornerstone of our future.”
García highlighted the Spanish authorities’s funding of over €300 million by its Restoration, Transformation, and Resilience Plan, together with €227 million devoted to the Precision Agriculture Assist Program, which has already financed 6,700 tasks nationwide.
“This isn’t a program for tech elites,” she added. “It’s for each farmer in each nook of the nation.”
Catalonia, which has more and more positioned itself as a frontrunner in sustainable agri-food innovation, additionally seized the second to highlight its ambitions.
“We need to make Barcelona and Catalonia the worldwide capital of precision agriculture and meals know-how,” mentioned Òscar Ordeig. “Innovation is not elective; it’s the muse of a resilient, aggressive meals system.”
“The agri-food sector shouldn’t be a logo of the previous,” he added. “It’s essentially the most strategic and technologically dynamic pillar of our financial system.”
Over the subsequent 5 days, the convention will host 41 periods, presenting 182 peer-reviewed oral shows and 120 scientific posters, curated by a panel of 100 consultants from 30 nations. Subjects embody synthetic intelligence, satellite tv for pc imaging, geostatistics, robotics, knowledge administration, sensor networks, and sustainable enter discount—all geared towards growing agricultural effectivity and resilience.
Outstanding visitor audio system embody Eric Liégeois of the European Fee; Prof. Laurens Klerkx, from Wageningen College and the College of Talca; and Prof. Jörg Dörr, from the College of Kaiserslautern-Landau in Germany.
A spotlight of the week is the Area Day, scheduled for Wednesday, July 2, at UPC’s Agròpolis experimental station. There, 15 know-how firms will showcase dwell demonstrations of sensible farm equipment, autonomous steering programs, and distant sensing applied sciences. The purpose: to indicate in actual time how science is being translated into motion.
“We’re closing the hole between principle and follow,” mentioned Emilio Gil, Full Professor at UPC and Chair of the ECPA 2025 Organizing Committee. “Area Day is the clearest demonstration of that. We’ll witness how AI, robotics, and digital platforms are already reshaping how we work the land.”
Gil emphasised that bridging analysis and actuality stays one of many convention’s core missions.
“One in every of our high priorities is to cut back the space between analysis and adoption,” he mentioned. “That solely occurs by coaching, information switch, and hands-on demonstration.”
All scientific content material introduced through the occasion can be compiled within the official Guide of Proceedings, revealed by Brill – Wageningen College Press below the route of Dr. John V. Stafford, one of many world’s foremost authorities within the area.
The convention is organized by the Agricultural Mechanization Unit of UPC’s Division of Agri-Meals Engineering and Biotechnology, in partnership with the Worldwide Society of Precision Agriculture (ISPA). Institutional help comes from the Authorities of Catalonia, the European Fee, and the Authorities of Spain, with sponsorship from 15 main firms within the agri-tech sector.
A proper gala dinner can be held Thursday, July 3, on the Hospital de Sant Pau, a UNESCO World Heritage Website, offering attendees with an opportunity to attach past the scientific periods.
“ECPA is not only an educational gathering,” Gil concluded. “It’s a name to motion to construct a better, extra sustainable agriculture—one that’s linked to the individuals who dwell from the land, and to the challenges all of us face.”
