The CERBERUS Agronomy Days 2025, held in Bologna, were conceived as a key moment to bring research, technology and real farming practice into the same space. Far from being a conventional project meeting, the Agronomy Days are designed as a reality check: a place where digital solutions are discussed, questioned and, above all, tested under real field conditions. Over several days, project partners, Advisory Board members, farmers, cooperatives and researchers reviewed progress and observed how CERBERUS technologies perform when applied in operational vineyards.
As the annual flagship event of the project, the Agronomy Days rotate across countries and crops. After the first edition focused on olive groves in Spain, the 2025 meeting centred on viticulture in Italy, with the next edition planned in citrus crops in Cyprus. This rotation follows the project architecture described in the CERBERUS concept, which is built on the idea that crop protection technologies must work across different agronomic, climatic and operational realities, not just under a single set of ideal conditions.
Throughout the Bologna edition, technical sessions were combined with stakeholder dialogue and a field visit to experimental vineyards in Cadriano. This combination is intentional: CERBERUS is structured around the idea that crop protection decisions only make sense when they are informed by data and validated through practice. One of the clearest expressions of this philosophy was the live demonstration of the CERBERUS smart sprayer, which allowed participants to see how digital decisions are translated into concrete actions in the field.
A recurring message during the Agronomy Days was that pest detection alone does not solve farmers’ problems. Monitoring systems can indicate risk, but farmers and technicians ultimately need to know when to intervene, where intervention is really necessary and how to avoid unnecessary treatments. CERBERUS addresses this gap by functioning as a closed plant-health chain: insects are monitored using smart traps and other sensors, data are analysed through the project’s cloud platform, and the output of that analysis is converted into prescription maps that guide field operations. This full workflow is being tested and refined across the project’s pilot sites to ensure it responds to real farming constraints.
The smart sprayer demonstrated in Bologna represents the final step of this chain. Designed by the Universitat Politècnica de València and built by industrial partner CLEYFER, the machine is responsible for executing prescription maps directly in the vineyard. Technically, the sprayer is equipped with 32 electronically controlled nozzles, each managed by an onboard computer using GNSS positioning. This setup allows the machine to vary the amount of product applied as it moves through the plot, rather than spraying the same dose everywhere.
One of the key engineering challenges addressed in CERBERUS is maintaining stable spray quality while applying variable rates. In orchard and vineyard spraying, pressure determines droplet size, and droplet size determines where the product ends up. If pressure fluctuates, droplets can become too fine and drift away with the wind, or too large and run off into the soil. During the Agronomy Days, particular attention was paid to how the CERBERUS sprayer maintains a stable internal pressure of around 6 bar, even while flow rates change continuously. This stability ensures that variable application does not come at the expense of efficiency or environmental protection.
Another technical aspect discussed in Bologna was how prescription maps are applied accurately under real driving conditions. While prescriptions are defined in litres per hectare, the sprayer operates in real time using litres per minute. To bridge this gap, the system combines plot information retrieved through GNSS with precise speed measurements obtained from a wheel-mounted sensor. This allows the sprayer to adjust automatically if the tractor speeds up or slows down, ensuring that the planned dose is applied consistently across the field.
Despite this level of internal complexity, usability remains a central design principle. From the operator’s perspective, the sprayer behaves much like a conventional machine, with the technology working in the background. This approach lowers barriers to adoption and reflects a broader understanding discussed during the Agronomy Days: digital innovation in agriculture must adapt to existing practices if it is to be widely accepted.
The Agronomy Days also highlighted the importance of traceability and evidence. By recording what is applied, where and when, the system creates a clear link between monitoring, decisions and actions. This information is valuable for farmers and cooperatives, but also for public authorities and policymakers interested in understanding how data-driven tools can support more sustainable crop protection strategies. These practical insights contribute to wider reflections on responsible innovation and transparency, such as those explored in CERBERUS’ work on open-access government research for AI policy design.
The Bologna edition marked a transition point for the project. Following the demonstration phase, 2026 will focus on broader validation, with smart sprayers deployed across different crops and countries to assess performance over time and under varying conditions. The knowledge generated through this process will feed into the project’s evolving Results, helping to determine how smart spraying can contribute to reducing pesticide use without compromising crop quality or farmer viability.
The accompanying Agronomy Days video captures this balance between technology and reality, showing how CERBERUS solutions are not only engineered, but also discussed, tested and understood by the people who may eventually use them in their fields.