Agricultural projects in Africa: The Italian Leonardo and Bf sign an agreement

The Italian company Leonardo and the agribusiness group Bf have signed an agreement with the Italian government to develop agricultural projects in several African countries, including Morocco.

This agreement is part of the Mattei Plan, a series of initiatives originally aimed at boosting economic growth in nine countries, including Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Algeria, which the government hopes will help stem migration flows. This month, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said the government would expand the four-year plan to include Angola, Ghana, Mauritania, Tanzania and Senegal, bringing the number of countries involved to 14.

The technologies provided by Leonardo to monitor crops, soils and water resources from space will be integrated into the agricultural and agro-industrial activities of the projects behind the internationalization of Bf in order to improve crop yields and address the problems of climate change, soil erosion and the Combat poverty resource management.

Leonardo did not provide any information about the amount of investment planned for the projects. Bf CEO Federico Vecchioni told Reuters that the company planned to invest 400 million euros over three years, in addition to government-guaranteed loans.