The workshop session “Scaling agri-transformation through integrated AI and disruptive tech” took place on April 14th, 2026, during the Digital Transformation Summit in Madeira. AgRimate was one of the projects featured at the session, together with NOSTRADAMUS, INNO4CFIS and AgAPP-e.
AgRimate was represented by Dr. Gerardo Beruvides (CEO of Xymbot), who presented the use of AR systems to help farmers in olive groves with pruning techniques. The exoskeleton developed by Xymbot will help farmers with pruning and also preserving their health by monitoring biomedical and environmental data. Another tech developed is the digital tree passport, to help farmers to record historic pruning actions and environmental data to provide farmers with traceable insights that optimize long-term tree health and crop productivity.
After the presentations, the audience was invited to answer the question, “What makes a digital farming app actually useful in the field?” with inputs from Gerardo Beruvides, who added his contribution with one of the challenges farmers face, as they want to prove that their ancient expertise is more important than the new technologies, but these new technologies are not to replace farmers but to help them in their day-to-day lives.
Another question raised was “What will be the primary driver for tech adoption in farming?” with inputs from speakers on the importance of policy and new regulations for agriculture, such as carbon credit requirements for high-polluting industries, or on how communities and their use cases can help Europe to define better practices. One challenge pointed out is how small cities are not walking together with advancements proposed by European policies, as small-scale farmers don’t know about policies or technologies, and how important it is to try to translate such regulations, policies, and technologies to farmers that are away from such information.
The last question proposed was “What should be the top priority for policymakers and innovation projects?” with speakers aligned on the value proposition of the technologies and business models proposed for agriculture, which is more than just the income and the price of the products. The last inputs of the speakers, even though proposing different solutions and approaches, are on the integration and broad understanding of the value of new technologies on different levels, from small-scale farmers to European policies.
