Overview on a few fablabs in agriculture
Fab labs are a global network of local labs, enabling invention by providing access to tools for digital fabrication
AgriLab UniLaSalle Beauvais — A view of the main entrance of a fablab oriented to farmers and agriculture
22 October 2018 in Beauvais AgriLab opened its doors to the community. It is a fablab officially labelled and part of the worldwide network. In their own words:
AgriLab meets all the equipment requirements, but goes much further. AgriLab has large equipment for machining because AgriLab is also intended for the agricultural world, Equipment for SMT electronics and composite 3D printers exceed the limited scope of a Lab in urban area. AgriLab is surrounded by agricultural land and allows trying prototypes in real conditions & outside.
The upcoming novelty is that AgriLab graduated as FabAcademy for 2020, thus being officially acknowledged as one of the nodes to learn rapid-prototyping by planning and executing a new project each week, resulting in a personal portfolio of technical accomplishments.
Fablabs oriented to agriculture
Fablabs are uppermost communities that are equipped to make (almost) anything. Nevertheless, some of their physical places can freely choose a thematic orientation. So I searched how many fablabs exist in agriculture. The reference is given by the current official list of Fab Labs that share the same principles, tools, and philosophy around the future of technology and its role in society: fablabs.io
The website proposes a search tab that is set to retrieve results only based on the name of the fablab. As such, I searched for the most common root: agr and farm. The results are the following.
agr — AgriLab Beauvais (FRA) 625 m². Farm of the Polytechnical Institute, ~200ha and ~80 dairy cows http://agrilab.unilasalle.fr/ Founded in October 2018 (official opening).
farm — FabFarm Düsseldorf (DEU) 50 m². Garden of 800 m² (within an area of ~15 000 m²) http://fabfarm.net/ Founded in 2014 (?).
farm — Algarve fabfarm Lagos ( PRT). Surface unknown. Secluded farmland and 9 rooms https://www.fabfarm.org/
https://www.facebook.com/algarvefabfarm/ Founded in January 2016.
Fablabs and the like in agriculture: beyond the name
Widening the search on the net, I founded a few more fablab (or the like) oriented to agriculture and farming.
Nerve Centre’s FabFarm
2016 — Londonderry, Northern Ireland, GBR LINK
FabFarm! A digital aquaponic farm that is designed, built and operated as a social enterprise by disabled students in Derry, N.Ireland. It is a partnership between the Nerve Centre’s FabLab and the Playtrail which sees students from the Playtrail and Ardnashee college designing, building and running their own digital Aquaponic farm. They were the recipient of a Digital Skills Award in 2017. Focus on aquaponics.
AgroEcoLab
2016–2021 (probably not an official FabLab?) — Abomey-Calavi, Bénin LINK
It is described as a third-place of experimentation, training and exchanges, open and free, in agroecology, for all the layers of the population.
The general objective is to research, experiment, disseminate and train on natural methods of agroecology in order to break with the use of chemical inputs in agriculture
Innovation fablab for agriculture
2019 (July) — San José Costa Rica LINK
It is the first Fab Lab specializing in management and technological innovation for the agriculture sector. Its purpose is to reduce the rural digital divide and increase the development of technological solutions in service to Costa Rican agriculture. Size: 225 m²
To learn more about AgriLab
AgriLab organised a first bootcamp for farmers in November 2017. We described what happened and how this approach could strengthen innovation by and for the farmers.
Dantan, J., Dubois, M., Fourati-Jamoussi, F., Jaber, M., Rizzo, D., 2019. Retour d’expérience d’un bootcamp dédié à l’innovation ouverte centrée sur les agriculteurs. Cahiers COSTECH 2 http://www.costech.utc.fr/CahiersCOSTECH/spip.php?article93
Dantan, J., Rizzo, D., Fourati, F., Dubois, M., Jaber, M., 2018. Farmer-oriented innovation: outcomes from a first bootcamp. Winner of the best paper prize at the 3rd Abbé Grégoire Innovation Days, Paris (FRA).
Originally published at http://agronoter.wordpress.com on November 10, 2019.
