Agrilevante: The circular economy at the heart of ITABIA events
The circular economy offers a response to the many challenges facing Mediterranean agriculture. During the Bari event, ITABIA events highlighted some good practices that can improve the resilience and sustainability of agricultural activities in the basin, with a particular focus on renewable energy. Field trials were held in the bioenergy area.
The climate crisis, the impact of human activities on the environment, the depletion of natural resources, and soil drying are among the multiple challenges the Mediterranean region today faces that threaten to limit its production capacity in a scenario characterized by a rapidly growing food demand, especially in the countries of North Africa and the Middle East. This issue, of extraordinary importance for the entire basin, could affect the development and stability of the socio-economic systems of all Mediterranean nations, including those on the northern shore, which nevertheless have more solid fundamentals. This is precisely why the Agrilevante exhibition, which focuses heavily on technologies for the basin's typical crops, placed great emphasis on the resilience and sustainability of agricultural activities. During the four-day event, which opened on October 9th and ends today, October 12th, the Italian Biomass Association (ITABIA) sponsored numerous meetings on these topics, which shared the so-called "3Rs," the cornerstones of the circular economy. The concepts of resource reduction, reuse, and regeneration allow us to outline a strategic approach to sustainability—as was explained during ITABIA events—since they translate into good practices, such as crop diversification, organic waste recovery, composting, rational use of water resources, and a return to agro-ecological methods. In this context, great emphasis has been placed on renewable energy, with particular reference to agro-energy. The workshop entitled "Renewable Fuels for the Mechanization of Agri-food Chains" was organized by ITABIA, CNR, and Coldiretti. FTP and the University of Bari provided a broad overview of agricultural energy resources and their potential range of uses, while the topic of regeneration was the focus of the meeting entitled “By-products of the Agri-food Industry and their Derivatives: Effective Resources for Regenerating Soils and Safeguarding the Environment”, organized by ENEA, ITABIA, CINSA, Star Facility Centre and the University of Parma. The bioeconomy was discussed during the ITABIA and RuralBioUP workshop on “Good Bioeconomy Practices in Rural Settings”. In addition to the technical meetings, the Italian Biomass Association also hosted the "Bioenergy Area" at Agrilevante, a demonstration space where some of the most innovative technologies for processing woody biomass from agricultural and forestry sources were put to the test, allowing visitors to appreciate their functionality and technical features.
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