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|id=Vol-1498/HAICTA_2015_paper70
|storemode=property
|title=An Innovative Sensor in the Agro-food Supply Chain: a RFID Technology Model
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1498/HAICTA_2015_paper70.pdf
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==An Innovative Sensor in the Agro-food Supply Chain: a RFID Technology Model==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1498/HAICTA_2015_paper70.pdf
An Innovative Sensor in the Agro-food Supply Chain: a
RFID Technology Model
Francesco Contò1, Nicola Faccilongo1, Raffaele Dicecca1, Claudio Zaza1,
Piermichele La Sala1
1
Department of Economics University of Foggia, Largo papa Giovanni Paolo II 1, Foggia
71100, Italy
Abstract. This paper explores an opportunity for technology transfer
monitoring and control, based on the use of miniaturized, smart and innovative
sensors able to follow the product and guarantee the quality during all stages of
the agro-food sector. The information concerning to the state of the product is
transferred in real time in a wireless way, according to the RFID technology.
The aim is to improve the quality and the logistics of the chain and offer
therefore, environmentally friendly and cost-effective solutions to optimize
production flows, by networking the existing Italian hubs. This opportunity
also offers the chance to develop business ideas through which encourage
settlement in the territory of new public and/or private subjects, able to offer
goods and services with high technological content. Moreover, the paper aims
to enhance the results of public research, through the diffusion and transfer of
technologies to the productive system and the creation of high-tech enterprise.
Keywords: System of innovation, Agricultural technology, Agro-food quality
and traceability, RFID Tag
1 Introduction
Policies to promote and encourage transfer of technology and innovation in the
agricultural sector may take different shapes depending on both the specific target
and strategies. Some may foster the creation of a community-supported network
focus on how to improve the quality and the logistic of the chain and other stress
efficiency of production functions of local food system. One of the main issues of the
Italian system of knowledge and innovation in agriculture lies in the weak
coordination among its components, particularly among development services and
research. In this context, it is useful to promote policies aimed at: i) creating
networks stressing multi-level stakeholders behaviors; ii) being able to facilitate the
transfer of knowledge from research and agricultural innovation. Part of the needs
that emerged from the development programs for Southern Italy (Mezzogiorno
d’Italia) in Puglia and from the Rural Development Programs (RDP), highlight,
indeed, their goals of competitiveness and sustainability of the agricultural, agro-
industrial and rural sector. In this framework it might be productive to find a solution
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to optimize the agro-food supply chain through an innovative way to control the
traceability of the product. The article makes use of a project useful as an example of
innovative process that put the most modern information and communication
technologies (for other IT innovation in agrofood sector, see also Contó et al., 2015)
at the service of knowledge produced and its use. The project, which involves the use
of RFID technology (Radio Frequency Identification), builds a public-private
partnership composed by local institutions and various actors involved in the
generation, dissemination and adoption of knowledge in the agricultural sector.
Researchers, development services technicians and, through these, agricultural
enterprises, have been so included in a network that aims to meet the demand for
innovation and the supply of research to address specific needs of the apulian agro-
food chain. After a brief literature on the system of innovation and the innovation
processes, the paper provides insights about an innovative sensor based on RFID
technology for the certification and food safety. Finally, it defines the role of CESAR
research project, as useful tool to promote the diffusion of innovation and knowledge
to boost the apulian agricultural sector. Conclusions are drawn. This work can be
considered a working in progress, an attempt to propose a concrete way to foster
innovation and technology transfer in the agro-food sector.
2 The System of Innovation and Innovation Process: the General
Framework
Innovation is one of the key strategies proposed in the literature and economic
government policies as a crucial driver of the agro-food sector. Innovation, especially
in the agricultural sector, is not manifested only as adoption of new technologies, but
also requires a balance between new practices, techniques and alternative ways to
organize and manage: markets, labor, land tenure, distribution of benefits, etc. An
innovation system is a network of organizations, companies and individuals with the
aim of bringing to market new products, new processes and new forms of
organization, together with the government institutions and policies that influence the
methods of action of the different agents the supply chain (World Bank, 2006).
Beyond researchers, extension agents and farmers, an agricultural innovation system
consists of all types of public, private and civil society actors, such as inputs and
processing industry actors, agricultural traders, retailers, policymakers, consumers
and NGOs. The system approach recognizes the influential role of institutions (i.e.
laws, regulations, attitudes, habits, practices, incentives) in shaping how actors
interact (World Bank, 2006). Innovation can’t be seen as a linear approach to
innovation in which public sector agricultural research delivers new technology
through a dissemination approach, but calls for systems approach in which
innovation is the result of a process of networking, interactive learning and
negotiation among a heterogeneous set of actors (Leeuwis, 2004; Röling, 2009).
The European Commission in its Europe 2020 Strategy (European Commission,
2010), places innovation and research at the center of attention for face future
challenges. The orientations for the "CAP towards 2020” (European Commission,
2010) underlines the role of innovation as being a main leader in the European Union
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agriculture in the coming years. Analysis of systems of innovation (Freeman, 1995;
Lundvall, 1992; Nelson, 1993; Arundel and Geuna, 2004; Edquist and Johnson,
1997; Breschi and Malerba 1997), innovation and scientific networks (Freeman,
1991; Callon, 1994; Hohn and Lutz, 1994), triple helix model (Etzkowitz and
Leydesdorff, 1997, 2000; Leydesdorff and Etzkowitz, 1998) and the innovation
becoming more open or distributed over time (Coombs et al., 2003), in turn
associated with increasing levels of collaboration and outsourcing (Chatterjee, 1996;
Howells, 1999a), has led the analysis to investigate more closely the role of the nodes
and links in this process (Howells, 2006). It has been applied in other sectors, mainly
in industry. The concept is considered to have great potential to add value to previous
concepts of agricultural research systems and growth by drawing attention to the
totality of actors needed for innovation and growth, consolidating the role of the
private sector and the importance of interactions within a sector, and emphasizing
the outcomes of technology and knowledge generation and adoption rather than the
strengthening of research systems and their outputs (World Bank, 2006). This central
role of research and innovation is developed further in one of the seven EU 2020
flagship initiative "Innovation Union" (European Commission, 2010) which
introduces the concept of European Innovation Partnerships (EIP) as a new way to
foster innovation.
The EIP aim to foster a competitive and sustainable agriculture and forestry that
achieves more from less' and works in harmony with the environment (Contò et al.,
2012); help building a competitive primary sector that secures global food
availability, diversified products and production, long-term supply of various raw-
materials for food and non-food uses, as well as a better allocation of added value
across the food chain. Under these conditions, the EIP identifies two main objectives:
as an indicator to promote the productivity and efficiency of the agricultural sector, it
aims to reverse by 2020 the recent downward trend in the increase of productivity;
and as an indicator of sustainability of agriculture, it aims to ensure the achievement
of a satisfactory level of functionality of soils in Europe by 2020.
Regarding the transfer innovation in agricultural practices, the EIP make use of a
number of existing policies: the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) rural
development policy in the field of Union research and innovation, to finance
innovative actions concrete; the Rural Development Programs (RDP) are
implemented generally within the strict boundaries of the regions covered by the
program, especially at the local, regional or national, innovative actions at the
interregional level, cross-border, and must be co-financed by the Union policy in the
area of research and innovation. Synergies are sought with the opportunities offered
by cohesion policy, in particular through regional strategies for innovation and
transnational and interregional cooperation programmes (Materia, 2012).
Others key concepts related to the innovation as system and diffusion of
knowledge, can be find on social dynamics and the so-called open innovation. In line
with the communication of the European Commission, the rural sectors in Europe
call for a review of the links between knowledge production and its use to foster
innovation. The new agricultural knowledge and innovation system (AKIS) must
adapt to the emerging economic, social and environmental challenges by making the
best use of diversity in technologies and innovations that can achieve more with less
while respecting the environment. Social innovation stresses the need for social and
626
political changes in the context of rural development and producer-consumer
relationships. Social innovation includes collective and creative learning processes,
in which actors form different social groups and rural and urban contexts participate
(European Commission, 2013). Together they develop new skills, products and/or
practices, as well as new attitudes and values that make a difference in addressing the
sustainability challenge in rural societies. The necessary skills, moreover, to achieve
new forms of competitive advantage for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
in the agro-food sector as “dynamic capabilities” emphasizing the key role of
strategic management in appropriately adapting and integrating internal and external
organizational skills, resources and functional competences to match the
requirements of a changing environment (Teece et al., 1997). The role assigned to
the social innovation passed thus through the concept of open innovation and its
relation with the competitive advantage for the SMEs. The theory of Open
Innovation and the business model that derives from it, are particularly adaptable to
the configuration management of SMEs. Many smaller companies manage to be
innovative only in the moment in which they are able to define, support and give
continuity to its competitive advantage. Nevertheless, the likelihood of such optimal
conditions is reduced to the high level of risk related to innovation, the high degree
of uncertainty about the possible economic returns, the lack of a coherent model of
innovation management (Cooper et al., 2005). We must, however, emphasize that
economic conditions are forcing even the most entrepreneurial "closed" to consider
the possibility to go beyond their boundaries and explore the outside world. Faced
with this situation, recent studies in the field of innovation and technology
management, explained the potential benefits related to an innovative process of
opening to the outside (Gassman, 2006), usually characterized by reduced
bureaucracy and greater inclination to risk by administrators, possession of highly
specialized knowledge, increased ability to react to rapid changes in the market
(Christensen et al., 2005). In SMEs, even more than in the large corporates, being
innovative means knowing how to better manage their "strength" competitive. From
this point of view, the rapid changes in technology are certainly not helpful, because
induce small businesses to activate processes of product development in an ever
more quickly and efficiently manner. This, in some ways, could result in enormous
sacrifices but, arriving before the direct competitors, would mean obtain innovative
and cost effective advantages. One way to stimulate this new evolutionary process
consists in emphasizing links with actors in the micro and macro business
environment, thus creating that knowledge system useful to acquire the dynamic
capabilities to meet the challenges that agricultural companies have to face.
Next section, then, will focus on the way in which we can apply such innovation
system models, analyzing how to develop innovative ideas using the most recent
information and communication technologies.
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3 An Innovative Sensor in the Agro-food Supply chain: a RFID
Technology Model
3.1 Quality and Traceability of food product
As mentioned before, it is useful to promote policies aimed at creating networks
stressing multi-level stakeholders behaviors, able to facilitate the transfer of
knowledge from research and agricultural innovation. With this aim has been
achieved the CESAR project (Certification and Food Safety by RFID), still in early
stages, in the Apulia region, an attempt to bring together the efforts to create a
network that involutes public and private institutions to promote transfer of
technology. For farms participating in the project represents an opportunity offered
totally free, to test a system of transfer of technology for monitoring and control,
based on the use of miniaturized sensors and intelligent able to follow the product
and guarantee its quality, during all stages of the food chain. The quality and food
safety are parameters that accompany the whole life of the product, since the primary
production, in all stages of processing, storage and packaging. In these stages (post-
harvest or post-production) is more critical to perform controls due to the risk of a
deterioration which affects the work done upstream and degrades a product which
initially was of high quality. Keep under control and continuously monitor certain
parameters essential for the quality of the product is an activity which, however, still
today, is not carried out in a totally efficient manner. The current procedures provide,
in fact, to set the best conditions for the processing and to perform a test on
individual lots, but this system does not provide the certainty that uncontrolled lots
are in accordance. The potential economic saving should not be underestimated
because sometimes the individual lots are so broad as to cover a working day or a
whole order of the customer. To reach this goal is necessary to move completely the
way to manage the traceability of the product: not affects only the origin of it but
involves detailed information on what happened at each stage of the life cycle,
consistently and without interruption. Currently, the management systems of
traceability and quality are concerned with collecting data at various stages of
production, but these data are acquired in necessarily discontinuous procedures and
grouped in batches. In other words the data available are restricted to individual
production lots which represent quantities far greater than those refer to the
individual production units. The quality is seen as the average value of more
detections, in the best of cases, or as the single value of the significant sample on
which are performed the analysis. There is no way to know what happens at the level
of single production unit. The information is then distributed and not centralized and
"follows" the product along the way acquiring and transmitting the parameters that
identify the preservation of quality. System developed in turn provides a system of
checks distributed and will be responsible for read the information collected and
continuously detect the value of the individual parameters, allowing, appropriate
steps to verify if they comply with the directions of the production rules. This allows
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to assess whether conditions that occurred, have altered the quality of the product,
including expense of food security.
3.2 RFID model
Briefly, in this session we describe the functioning of the technology. The
information relating to the state of the product is transferred in real time in a wireless
manner, according to the RFID technology. RFID technologies, thanks to the
possibility of monitoring and tracking deals, are suitable for applications increasingly
widespread within the various food chains, especially to uniquely identify the
products and reconstruct the history along the chains. The RFID systems, compared
to those more established as the barcode, offer additional benefits such as greater
number of storable information, the presence of unique identifiers and irreproducible,
a greater reliability of reading and the possibility of storing information in either a
centralized, in a database, and decentralized way directly to each product. The
sensors are in the network and communicate the data in a wireless manner using
RFID technique that allows the transmission in two different ways.
First mode involves querying the sensor to pass through special gates, with readers
and places corresponding to certain stages of production (at the entrance of the
storage area, at the entrance of cold storage, at the beginning of line processing,
packaging, shipping, etc.). The second mode provides for the spontaneous
transmission by the sensor when one of the detected parameters, which proves to be
particularly critical, exceed certain threshold values. In this phase, the sensor sends a
signal to indicate that the product is at an early stage of degradation and action must
be taken promptly.
Fig. 1. RFID technology. Source: our processing.
The last frontier in the field of RFID technology is the introduction of active tags
equipped with sensors that can detect environmental parameters (temperature,
pressure, humidity, gas) where the products subject to control, they are immersed.
The values measured by the sensors are stored in a special internal memory, and
remain there until an operator equipped with card reader, do not run the exhaust on a
Handheld PC. This is of strategic importance for the monitoring of organoleptic
parameters of food and perishables in general, where it is necessary to ensure
operational regimes controlled. The tags, because of the small size, can be placed in
"uncomfortable" points, where it would be difficult to bring a card and a cable access
needed to fuel a measuring device, and offer much content costs, a reliable solution
and easy to implementation. Thanks to the use of such solutions can monitor the state
of conservation of a substance, or report an alarm when the temperature parameter is
not in the desired range, without opening the packages that protect the substance
stored in temperature and managing the data in a data processing, from a central site,
629
where to take the appropriate decisions: delete the product or accelerate the treatment
of a process. The software platform, by interfacing with the appropriate RFID
detectors, will deal with the acquisition of the data collected by the sensors and
processing them in order to ensure the constant monitoring of the products during
each phase of the production cycle. In each phase, the system will be able to
determine the condition of the product and to promptly identify the conditions that
may lead to a degradation with consequent reduction of the quality and healthiness.
In this stage is important to disclose the technology which in fact consists of a
platform integrated and configurable able to adapt to the specificity of each
individual production, both within the same chain, either of different sectors. The
technology therefore consists in a system of distributed monitoring of perishable
food products through the use of intelligent micro sensors placed on the individual
units of product. The system consists, briefly, of two basic elements: a network of
distributed sensors and a software platform for the collection and analysis of data and
may also be implemented in an integrated form (RFID tags) for the monitoring of the
individual products and as Mini-Card (black box) for the monitoring of batches. In
the first case the chip (RFID tag) is integrated in the package and intended to be
thrown away with the packaging when having assumed his job during the life of the
product on the shelf or shelf distributor; in the second case the black box will follow
the life of the batch of product and will be destined to be reconfigured and reused
over time.
Fig. 2. Tag’s positions. Source: our processing
4 The CESAR project and the public-private Partnership
The aim of the RFID model is to improve the quality and supply chain logistics
and propose therefore, environmentally friendly and cost-effective solutions to
optimize production flows, networking italians hubs already exist and so favoring the
process of internationalization of local companies. This opportunity also offers the
chance to develop business ideas through which encourage settlement in the territory
of new public and/or private individuals, able to offer goods and services with high
technological content. The implementation of the concepts expressed above and the
adaptation of the methodology to the specific case, is the result of the “Associazione
temporanea di scopo -ATS” (Syndacate association on a temporary basis), who
presented the CESAR project. The CESAR project (Certification and Food Safety by
RFID) identifies the research project presented in the spring of 2012 to the italian
Ministry of Economic Development. It consists on a public-private partnership
630
composed by the Polytechnic of Bari, Unione provinciale agricoltori (Provincial
Union Farmers) Foggia, Confindustria Foggia, Agro-food Regional District (DARe)
and the University of Bologna, in response to the program from the system for
Technology Transfer Research to SMEs and the creation of new high-tech
companies. The CESAR research project, still in an early stage, has a duration of 24
months. The main activities concern (i) the structured analysis of the connections
between the supply of technologies and demand for innovation; (ii) the development
of an innovation strategy geared to productive specialization and (iii) the needs of the
SME market and the strengthening of a common culture of innovation in relation to
the subsequent processes of technological spillover and start-up company.
Specifically, monitoring technology of perishable product and processing of data
will be managed at the Polytechnic of Bari and at T3LAB (University of Bologna),
experts in engineering and RFID technology; the presence of the other partner,
DARe, Confindustria and Provincial Farmers Union Foggia, will overcome any
difficulties in technology transfer in areas of the territory not informed of
developments occurred in the field of quality control in the food chain using RFID
techniques and more generally will address the dissemination of knowledge and
intermediation between universities and farmers. For support, supervise and
coordinate the activities that govern the transformation of research results into
economic value, such as the protection and enhancement of the results found and the
generation of innovative entrepreneurship, the partnership provided for the definition
of specific actions.
Moreover, the activities can be summarized as follows: the study activity has
declined in three logical functions. The function of knowledge mapping through
which organize and manage data about the technologies. The function of innovation
intelligence through which detect and correlate the need for innovation, the
technological potential, the enablers and the value propositions of companies. The
function of community building through which support the relations of exchange and
mutual learning. These functions will be based on three other tasks:
1) structuring the portfolio of technologies and technology scouting activities. This
activity aims on the one hand to develop a strategic review process technology offers,
in order to compose a technology portfolio structured according to the innovative
profile of protectable and market opportunities. On the other hand, consider the
placement of technology both with respect to the characteristics of specific regional
clusters of agribusinesses, and opposed to the larger technological scenarios for the
sector, in order to create the appropriate conditions for subsequent technology
transfer actions;
2) analysis of the innovation needs. This activity is designed to detect the needs of
innovation coming from companies in the region through the analysis of key business
needs, technological competence in terms of assets and know-how, resources and
organizational capabilities. A clear and shared approach paves the way for the
adoption of a dynamic orientation to the formulation of strategies aimed at
overcoming the gaps of innovation;
3) establishing patterns of technology transfer. This activity aims to identify, analyze
and select the most suitable models for technological transfer to the enhancement of
the proposed technologies, depending on the characteristics of the technical-scientific
(transdisciplinarity), the regime of appropriability of knowledge (replicability), the
631
nature and type of additional resources needed (absorption), the coordination and
integration of the flow of knowledge and information (organization).
5 Discussion and Conclusions
The present paper intended to define a model of organization based on theories of
system innovation and technology transfer, able to enhance the results of public
research through the dissemination and transfer of technologies to the productive
system and the creation of high-tech enterprise.
Especially in Puglia, the majority of small and medium enterprises in the agro-
food sector feel as fundamental the satisfaction of the need for technological
innovations that allow to improve food security and the health quality of their
products, thus adapting to the constraints posed by food law, and eliminating or
reducing the risk of poisoning, infection and disruption to consumers related to the
presence of biological contaminants in food, chemical or physical. The ability to
create a model that deals with traceability and certification of agro-food product
based on RFID technology, would mean improve the quality and the logistics of the
chain and offer therefore, environmentally friendly and cost-effective solutions to
optimize production flows, by networking the existing Italian hubs.
The analysis carried out with the implementation of the CESAR project has
strengthened the idea of the innovation system and technology development,
involving public and private stakeholder of the territory. The project allows to: (i)
analyze a structured connections between the supply of technology and demand for
innovation; (ii) develop an innovation strategy oriented to productive specialization
and to the needs of the SME market; (iii) strengthen a common culture of innovation
according to the subsequent processes of technology spillover and start up business;
(iv) disseminate information, prospects and opportunities resulting from research and
experimental development; (v) ensure the active participation of the largest number
of SMEs and the most relevant regional stakeholders operating in the agro-food
sector; (vi) determine and assess the skills, processes and technology needs of a
sample of SMEs, identifying strengths and weaknesses and (vii) explain the potential
of technologies to be transferred demonstrating their actual applicability on a pilot
scale. The paper used as a tool for technology transfer and innovation in agricultural
sector, the Partnership presented within the CESAR research project allowing a
strong link to territory and making possible the enhancement and the creation of
high-tech enterprise in Puglia.
We conclude that the partnership represents an organization of public and private
actors which is able to foster the implementation of the RFID model creating a
system of technology transfer in the agricultural sector. We believe that the guiding
principle of the actions promoted by the ATS lies in the awareness that a stronger
relationship between the universities and the socio-economic context provides a solid
basis for the exploitation of results and the strengthening of institutional relations and
economic benefits in favor of the Apulian agro-food sector. We are aware that
promote an effective dialogue between universities and industry, focusing on
innovation and technology transfer, therefore means supporting businesses in the
632
difficult task of facing the challenge of competition relying on access to adequate
levels of quality research and development.
For the future, the strategy to be adopted will therefore help to bridge the gap that
still exists between research and the market in the innovation process. The exchange
system is designed both to provide answers to specific questions, and to help qualify
the same demand for innovation. The need for exploiting the results of research does
not sit just downstream of their implementation, but encompasses the whole
operating process, from decision making to scientific processes and institutional
relations.
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