What does a territory need from a digital platform? We went and asked.
As part of the BIO-DISTRICT APP project — co-funded by the Interreg VI-A Greece–Italy 2021–2027 programme — the Bio-Distretto delle Lame spent the spring of 2026 doing something that sounds obvious but rarely gets done properly: asking the people who live and work in the territory what they actually need.
The result was two Needs Group Technique (NGT) workshops, held in March and April 2026, with 21 participants drawn from across the quadruple helix — farmers, cooperatives, cultural operators, institutions, and researchers, including our lead project partner CIHEAM Bari. The guiding question for both sessions was deliberately simple: “What are the needs of the Bio-Distretto delle Lame territory that could be supported or addressed with digital tools?”
Here’s what we found.
Workshop 1 — March 17, 2026: Agrifood and Organic Farming
Thirteen stakeholders sat down to map the digital needs of our agrifood and organic farming system. The Bio-Distretto delle Lame is not a small or marginal agricultural territory: its four municipalities — Ruvo di Puglia, Bitonto, Terlizzi, and Toritto — account for over 39,500 hectares of agricultural land, with olive groves alone covering more than 21,900 ha. In the Province of Bari, there are 4,188 certified organic operators managing nearly 96,000 ha — the leading province in Puglia.
The discussion produced eight need clusters, ranked by vote. The top four tell a clear story:
The most urgent digital need — ranked first with 23 out of 84 votes — was for technical assistance and the sharing of good agricultural practices: applications providing real-time updates on agronomic management, pest monitoring for olive, almond and vine, phytosanitary alerts, and tools to support carbon credit processes. Participants wanted operational, regularly updated tools, not generic training content.
Second came consumer awareness (19 votes): building informed demand for local organic products is seen as a precondition for the sustainability of the whole system. Transparency on the production chain, and education on the real meaning of organic, emerged as fundamental.
Territorial valorisation came third (15 votes): a citizen-facing portal aggregating farms, events, and services; mapping tools for visitors; tools to connect agriculture with culture and tourism experiences.
Fourth, digital commercial tools — marketplace, e-commerce, market analysis (12 votes). The fact that this ranked below quality and knowledge construction is telling: before opening new markets, producers want to build the foundations that justify a premium.
Workshop 2 — April 13, 2026: Arts, Culture, and Tourism
Eight stakeholders — cultural operators, administrators, and sector representatives — took part in the second session, exploring the digital needs of the territory’s cultural and tourism dimensions. The Bio-Distretto delle Lame holds a remarkable and largely underdigitised heritage: the Jatta National Archaeological Museum in Ruvo di Puglia (home of the Talos Vase), the Concathedral of Bitonto — considered the most complete expression of Apulian Romanesque architecture — UNESCO-recognised dry-stone walling traditions, and the unique case of Toritto, where the Via Ettore D’Urso was literally widened to allow sun-drying of the Mandorla di Toritto heritage almond.
The top priority, by a clear margin, was mapping and geolocating points of interest (13 of 48 votes): geolocated trails, monumental trees, rural structures, masserie, jazzi, woodland areas, and cultural heritage sites. Closely behind was building a shared territorial identity (12 votes) — a digital layer capable of giving coherence and visibility to what is, at the moment, a fragmented set of excellent but poorly connected assets.
Third came the need for a discovery tool for operators (8 votes): a way for cultural and tourism professionals to find one another and map cooperation opportunities. Participants explicitly referenced the Majellando model and the need to integrate urban and rural contexts.
One observation worth noting: the cluster on “deepening knowledge of the territory” received zero votes — not because the content isn’t valued, but because those present already share that knowledge. What they need is tools to make it accessible to wider audiences.
What comes next
These results are now feeding into the Needs Assessment Report (Deliverable D3.1) that the Bio-Distretto delle Lame is producing for BIO-DISTRICT APP. The findings will inform the design of the digital platform the project aims to develop — one rooted in actual territorial priorities, co-identified through participatory processes.
The next step is a stakeholder event focused on digital solutions: we’ll be bringing together producers, cultural operators, institutions, and researchers to analyse existing platforms from across Europe that respond to the needs our community has identified. The most promising of these — from integrated mapping tools to organic farming knowledge platforms to blockchain traceability systems — will be discussed and evaluated together.
BIO-DISTRICT APP is co-funded by the Interreg VI-A Greece–Italy 2021–2027 programme. Partners: Bio-Distretto delle Lame, CIHEAM Bari (Lead Partner), ARIF Puglia, InnoPolis, AgrifoodWest, Municipality of Ancient Olympia.