Imperia launches ITS Agroalimentare campus with AI-powered olive farming labs

The ITS Accademia Ligure Agroalimentare opened a new campus in Imperia, Italy, on 26 June. The facility houses "ITS Labs 4.0" – modern laboratories for the region’s key agro‑food sectors, including olive cultivation, viticulture, floriculture and horticulture. Funding of over €1.3 million came from the national PNRR plan and the European Social Fund.

In partnership with agritech startup Plantvoice, the campus pilots precision‑agriculture technologies. A patented biosensor the size of a toothpick is inserted into olive trunks to monitor sap flow, transmitting data to a cloud‑based AI platform. Combined with intelligent insect traps and multispectral drone surveys, the system alerts students to water, nutrient or pest stress, reportedly reducing irrigation needs by around 40 %. Students will manage a trial olive grove at the "Le Terrazze della Garbella" farm, with 35 % of training conducted on‑site and over 60 % of instruction delivered by industry professionals. The program, free for participants, boasts a graduate employment rate above 90 % within six months of graduation.