PRECISION AGRICOLTURE AND CARROT CULTIVATION: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN ITALY.

The development of precision agriculture technologies is at a highly advanced stage, although Italy remains, according to the European Innovation Scoreboard, a moderate innovator. Certainly, a key role in the promotion of precision agriculture technologies has been played by the funding measures of the past few years that have driven digitalisation in some Italian agricultural sectors. Agricultural digitalisation has not followed a homogeneous development among Italian crops, being more present in the extensive crop sectors and in viticulture. The Italian horticultural sector, in which carrot cultivation is a strategic crop with 9.270 hectares cultivated in 2023 (ISTAT), was instead investigated to a limited extent in terms of adoption level and expected benefits. Aim of the study was to investigate the penetration rate of precision agriculture technologies in the carrot sector in Italy, and the opportunities for improvement that the sector requires.