From Tierra de Campos, the main crop of our country turns to innovation and research to improve its profitability with the first “hub” in the north of the peninsula and the first led by a woman.
In the town of Perales in Palencia, in the heart of Tierra de Campos, a major cereal-producing region in Spain, the Ceres Rural Innovation Hub is already germinating, a technological platform that aims to bring “real solutions” to a sector in permanent crisisHer “alma mater” is Beatriz Barcenilla, a young graduate in law and business administration at Icade who decided in 2021 to leave her job as a consultant in the banking sector to join her family’s agricultural consultancy business.
A master’s degree in Agriculture 4.0 and a degree in agricultural and agri-food engineering at INEA, dependent on the Pontifical University of Comillas, which he hopes to complete this year “and which I really enjoy”, complete a training with which he intends to contribute his “granite sand for the province, for farmers and for the development of the sector. “I’m in a lot of trouble, but it’s worth it,” he said.
“I learned from Fran Gálvez, from Alltech, about the technology hubs that already exist in Spain and I saw that it was a good option in a region like Palencia, so oriented towards cereals, because it could be disruptive,” explains this young woman who shares her passion for agriculture. Download the latest issue of elEconomistaAgro for free
In its cover letter, Ceres RIH defines itself as a meeting point and a center for innovation and open transfer of knowledge to all operators in the agricultural sector (small and medium-sized enterprises, universities, farmers, public sector, technology centers, etc.) leading to tangible improvements applicable in real agriculture.
The central axis of its activity is the promotion of commercial and technological synergies, establishing itself as a starting point for R&D&i projects that strengthen the region’s agri-food sector.
The basis will be research and demonstration in an experimental farm of 300 hectares, dry and irrigatedfor the further transfer of knowledge and the creation of new profitable, sustainable, regenerative, inclusive and transferable production models.
This is the first Hub in Castile and León and northern Spain, and the first led by a woman, which seeks to position itself as a reference both in the field of cereals and in the new high value-added crops that are beginning to be established in the region and are presented as an interesting alternative.
The importance of soil
Beatriz Barcenilla’s commitment to increasing the profitability of cereals is very innovative in a sector in which the traditional tendency of farmers has been to concentrate on the most fertile lands and leave the less productive lands in the background.Instead of investing less in less productive soils, I believe the difference lies in trying to improve their quality,” he declares.
Therefore, achieving ‘suppressive’ (balanced) soils is one of the key battlegrounds that the hub will focus on not only to reduce economic costs and increase yields, but also to improve its carbon sink capacity, another of the possibilities for improving agricultural profitability offered by the agricultural policy dictated by Brussels.
“Ultimately, farmers, like all businesses, need to have a business plan, with short, medium and long term goals. In that plan you need to include all the possible variables to maximize revenues and reduce costs such as the productive potential of varieties; strengthening the role of the soil to reduce inputs and chemical fertilizers while improving carbon production and sequestration; rotations to favor the microbiome or better water management, in which many things can be improved,” explains Beatriz.
Alongside this, the hub will also focus on new alternative crops for the region and will have the largest experimental woodland garden in north-west Spain. They are already testing around twenty varieties of woody plants of interest to the region. The Ceres Rural Innovation Hub will have four categories of partners: strategic, commercial, local, which respond to the social objective of promoting the territory and will be companies that offer more transversal services, and institutional -universities or municipalities-. Among the strategic companies, there are already Alltech, Banco Santander and Agrobarcenilla; in business with CarbonX, Irconsa and Agromillora; and in store with Acción Video, Online IT Solutions and Hosblan.
They also maintain contacts with technology centres and universities. Specifically, last year, the University of Valladolid and the Provincial Council of Palencia awarded Agrobarcenilla a project to develop a product based on microorganisms against pea rabies (a very common disease in the region that causes low profitability of legumes).
Revitalization of the neighborhood
The revitalization of the area is another of the main objectives of the pole.”Every year, around 6,000 people pass through the five active hubs. “In a town of 100 registered residents where the bar is not open year-round, this will be a big shock,” Barcenilla says.
The hub is scheduled to be unveiled in April, and will include a classroom of about 100 square meters, offices, a meeting room and a two-story, fully open building intended to be dedicated to coworking or events.
“The response from the sector, from farmers, is very good. When you explain what it is about, other initiatives that we have launched or projects that we have in mind appreciate it. All the initiatives that we carry out are by and for farmers, depending on the problems that they report to us, we try to help them”, explains Beatriz Barcenilla.
Alongside the research sessions on biotechnology or agriculture 4.0, the cluster will develop public-private collaboration projects with high industrial potential and strong market penetration; meetings with farmers, agricultural and commercial associations; raise national and European funds and generate commercial and technological synergies.
The “I see” of cultures
Beatriz Barcenilla’s love for agriculture has its roots in her childhood. “Since I was little, I always went with my father to see the countryside and in the car we did not play the traditional I Spy but to see What crop was it and what weeds did I see?he assures.
Passionate about horse riding – she was regional show jumping champion in 2012 – she has blind faith in the potential of the sector. “I would tell farmers not to get discouraged, that They are very lucky to be in the industry they are in. and work on what they are working on because it is one of the sectors with the most possibilities and with the most open doors at the moment. It is true that there are difficulties but the sector is worth it.”
