THE NRRP AND ITS CONTRIBUTION TO AGRICULTURE

1. What is the NRRP and why was it established?

The NRRP (National Recovery and Resilience Plan) is a project aimed at relaunching the Italian economy. It was approved in response to the economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The Italian NRRP is one of many other similar plans approved in all EU countries, largely financed by funds from Brussels and, to a lesser extent, by national domestic resources.

The sum involved is about €248 billion, which must be used to kick-start the economy. These investments will have to lead to a profitable, long-lasting and structural increase in GDP. If this does not occur, not only will the country have missed an opportunity but also the Italian economy, already badly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, will be further hit by its heavy public debt accumulated in recent years.

2. What can the NRRP do for agriculture?

For agriculture, the main NRRP goals are to contribute to the modernisation of the sector, also in terms of digital transformation so that one of the sectors that tends to be considered “traditionalist” can gain some benefit from a major boost in innovation.

The aim is to make its processes more and more competitive also on an international scale, increasingly sustainable in order to protect the planet and progressively resilient to external forces that threaten it, such as extreme weather events, climate change and competition from other markets that have embarked on the path towards new technologies before ours. All this should be enhanced along with a key factor for our country: the quality and uniqueness of its products.

3. Innovation and mechanisation in the agricultural sector

In the Italian Recovery Plan by law: “Farmers must transform their production methods faster and make better use of new technologies, in particular through digitisation, in order to achieve better environmental results, increase climate resilience and reduce and optimise the use of production factors.” This concerns an increase in the spread of precision agriculture and Agriculture 4.0 technologies. These allow the rationalisation of chemical and water inputs and the use of manpower, exploiting data obtained through sensors and satellites, as well as the renewal of vehicle fleets.

More specifically, the NRRP envisages that capital subsidies for the modernisation of agricultural machinery can be granted for introducing precision farming techniques that allow a 25-40% reduction in the use of pesticides, and for the use of Agriculture 4.0 technologies. In addition, the most polluting agricultural vehicles will be replaced, upgrading from Euro 1 to Euro 5.