"Fieragricola 2020 spotlights the huge challenges that farmers are being called to face, starting from the Green Deal described by the EU Commission, presided over by Ursula von der Leyen, which involves the agricultural system in a complex way,” explained the President of Veronafiere Maurizio Danese.

“In order to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, joint efforts on a worldwide scale and clear commitment from all members of the agricultural sector will be required, in terms of fighting against climate change, biodiversity, agroecology, support of renewable energy and the circular economy. 

This event in Verona aims, as always, to offer insights and practical solutions to accompany the business world and the agro-zootecnical food sector in its journey towards sustainability.” 

The days spent in the Fieragricola are intense: the programme, indeed, contains a lot of interesting debates, presentations, professional and scientific meetings, exhibitions and dynamic tests. 

The 2020 edition, number 114, which took place from 29^th January to 1^st February of this year, registered some important numbers: 132 thousand visitors (15% of whom came from abroad, representing 30 different countries), 900 companies from 20 nations, 67 thousand m² of exhibition space and 130 technical conferences. 

The Minister for Agriculture, Teresa Bellanova, and the Minister for Agriculture of Croatia, Marija Vučković, who was also President of the Council of the Ministers for Agriculture of the European Union in the first half of 2020, also took part.

“We couldn't miss the Fieragricola, because to systematically face issues such as sustainability and the circular economy is fundamental for the future of agriculture," declared Marco Poggianella, Founder of SOP.

“I do feel, however, that these issues are always considered only partially, without putting sufficient emphasis on the need to invest in solutions capable of obtaining economic, environmental and social sustainability. It is not infrequent to settle for proposals that preserve productivity without considering the environmental impact, or to accept the sponsorship of more drastic interventions that are unlikely to favor the farmer himself, forcing him to reduce his profit margin.

SOP's approach is different: the solutions we propose always unite sustainability with profitability. In other words, our products are the most effective combination, in our opinion, of mitigation (the implementation of changes in processes and processing, so as to reduce the production of Greenhouse gases without compromising the economy of the farmer) and adaptation (the development of solutions to help farmers adapt to the current climate changes and to prepare them for those to come in the future).

When we say that sustainability and economic return have to walk side by side, we also do so as, today, banks and financial institutions are under much greater pressure to only give money and credit to those that are sustainable and, at the moment, agriculture is still considered unsustainable. For this reason, it is no longer worthwhile to consider sustainability as less of an important objective than profitability: those who disregard sustainability, will find it increasingly more difficult to receive credit and will have higher interest rates.

We at SOP can make a contribution to the improvement of this rating, as we can demonstrate that the activities of the farms which collaborate with us have a significantly lower environmental impact, allowing the banks, which receive money to be given specifically to those that are sustainable, to give credit to farmers and, thus, be more sustainable themselves, creating a chain of more positive ratings which it would be extremely important and urgent to activate.”