H2020 H3O Project: Healthy Crops, Healthy Environment, Healthy Finances... through Optimization
- Type Project
- Status Filled
- Execution 2015 -2017
- Assigned Budget 915.298,79 €
- Scope Europeo
- Main source of financing H2020
- Project website H3O
Specifically, for H3O technology, the customer-centric design objective is to reduce pesticide losses by 50% and fuel consumption by 38.5%. This is achieved by adapting the sprayer to vegetation characteristics and weather conditions during applications, as well as through a proactive warning system that reduces the need for a second treatment with plant protection products (PPP). This results in savings of €462.50 per hectare per year, using Spanish prices for plant protection products and diesel fuel. H3O technology, therefore, produces annual savings of €4,625 for an average farmer with 10 hectares of vertical farming, resulting in a payback period of less than 1.4 years. Industrial-sized farms can manage up to 35 hectares with a single sprayer, resulting in an even shorter payback period of less than five months.
Furthermore, all H3O developments comply with European Union Directive 2009/128/EC establishing a framework for Community action towards the sustainable use of pesticides and Directive 2009/127/EC amending Directive 2006/42/EC as regards machinery for the application of pesticides, which requires that machinery must be designed and constructed to ensure that the pesticide is delivered to the target areas, to minimise losses to other areas and to prevent drift of the pesticide into the environment.
Pulverizadores Fede is a technological leader in the production of agricultural machinery for vertical crops, found in orchards and vineyards, for example. As such, we are well positioned to contribute to eco-innovative and resource-efficient food production, which is not only good for the environment but also key to the competitiveness of the agricultural sector, with a clear European dimension.
Farmland covers almost 25% of the EU (4.4 million square kilometers), and most of this area is subject to phytosanitary treatments. With the two-year H3O project, we are bringing a completely new generation of crop protection application devices (sprayers) to market, reducing the amount of product released into the environment by 50%. Furthermore, the fine-grained adaptation saves 38.5% on diesel.
For a small farmer with 10 hectares of vertical farming, this represents annual savings of €4,630 in product and fuel. Furthermore, the project meets the key requirements of EU Directive 2009/128/EC on the sustainable use of pesticides and is in line with the GLOBAL GAP food chain industry standard.
If we consider the savings from the H3O crop protection product in a broader perspective, if all vertical farming area in Europe were treated with H3O technology, farmers would apply 18,930,000 liters less crop protection product to the fields each year, making it clear that H3O not only produces healthy crops, a healthy environment, healthy finances, but potentially much better living conditions for us all.
- PULVERIZADORES FEDE S.L.U. (FEDE)
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