Smart Farming in Greece/Central Macedonia

1. ”Black Sea Basin Smart Farming Workshop (Current Situation)”
Smart Farming in Greece/Central Macedonia
Dr. Efthymios C. Rodias

2. • Background of Greek agriculture
• Agricultural policies
• Smart farming projects
• Quadruple helix approach in Greek agriculture
• Smart technologies in Greek agriculture (Results)
• Conclusions
Presentation Overview

3. • Greece absorbs a significant share of its economy from the agricultural sector.
• While mostly Greece is covered by forests, there are significant regions with plains (Thessaly,
Central Macedonia, Thrace, etc.) that are mostly used for agricultural purposes.
• Agricultural land in Greece is fragmented mostly in small-sized, family-owned fields compared to
other European countries.
• Half million of the population is employed in agriculture.
Pillars of Greek agriculture
• Crop production: intensive row crops (such as cereals, cotton, etc.), olive groves (for olive oil and
olives production), vineyards (for wine and grapes production), orchards (peach, apples, oranges,
etc.) and other industrial crops that are absorbed in food industry after specific processing (for
example tomato juice and canned fruits).
• In livestock production : sheep/goat/cow/poultry farming for milk, cheese and other dairy products
or meat production.
• Fish farming and fishing is always an important income for coastline areas and islands in Greece.
Background of Greek agriculture

4. Agricultural policies
• National agricultural policy: the interventions in the country’s rural development and economy,
(crop, livestock, forestry and fishery production).
• Common Agricultural Policy (CAP): It includes a set of regulations relating to agricultural
production, farmers’ financial aid, rural development and the regulation of agricultural products’
markets.
• CAP 2021-2027 has set the digital transformation in the agricultural sector, as one of the main
means towards production costs and environmental impact reduction through the more rational
and optimized use of natural resources, agricultural inputs, etc.

5. Smart Farming Projects
• SmartAKIS: European Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems towards innovation-driven
research in Smart Farming Technology.
• Synergie: Human-Robot Synergetic Logistics for High Value Crops.
• Innoseta: Accelerating Innovative practices for Spraying Equipment, Training and Advising in
European agriculture through the mobilization of Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems.
• Biocircular: A bioproduction system for circular precision farming.
• Gates: A serious game-based training platform, in order to train professionals across the
agricultural value chain on the use of Smart Farming Technologies, thus allowing deploying its full
economic and environmental potential in European agriculture.
• Tastestevia: A holistic approach along the production cycle of Stevia Rebaudiana plant cultivated in
Greece, via combined application of innovative methods of Precision Agriculture and bitter
aftertaste removal techniques.
• Nexus: Research synergy to address major challenges in the nexus: energy-environment-
agricultural production.

6. Quadruple helix approach in Greek agriculture
• The Quadruple Helix (QH) is an innovation and collaboration model with a citizen/end-user
perspective
• To increase the success of the collaboration it is important to define which are the specific QH
stakeholders that should be involved (stakeholder mapping) and to make sure all QH actors are
involved and motivated.

7. Quadruple helix approach in Greek agriculture (Results)
The list of stakeholders that were involved in the investigation include briefly:
• Union of Young Farmers
• Regional Unit authorities
• Municipality authorities
• Agricultural Cooperatives
• Consortium of Agricultural Cooperatives
• Agricultural businesses
• Wineries
• Farmers
• Greek Payment Authority of C.A.P. Aid Schemes
• Hellenic Agricultural Organization Dimitra
• Universities and research institutions
• NGOs

8. Quadruple helix approach in Greek agriculture (Results)
• The majority of the interviewed (78%) come from agricultural sector, the 8% from education, 8%
from businesses, while the rest 6% was connected to socio-economical or other fields.
• Based on the quadruple helix innovation system the stakeholders belong to Business/Industry Helix
(85%), Academia Helix (5%) , while the rest 10% is related to the other two helices (i.e.
Government: 7.5% and Society: 2.5%)

9. Smart technologies in Greek agriculture (Results)
Awareness of smart farming applications
among the stakeholders
Type of smart farming technologies used by
farmers in each stakeholder’s region

10. Smart technologies in Greek agriculture (Results)
Based on the results, the main advantages provided by the use of smart farming technologies in
Greece are related to:
• increased productivity (~81% of the stakeholders),
• reducing environmental impact (77% of the stakeholders),
• high quality products (50% of the stakeholders),
• cost reduction (~81% of the stakeholders),
• increased profit (~42% of the stakeholders),
• activity planning (~69% of the stakeholders), and
• labor efficiency (~77% of the stakeholders).
According to participants’ awareness
• 58% of their local farmers would like to adopt smart farming technologies,
• 8% wouldn’t like,
• 34% of the stakeholders were not sure.

11. Smart technologies in Greek agriculture (Results)
Smart farming technologies local needs in agricultural sector
96% of the respondents believe that crop production need smart
farming applications, while around the half of them pointed out
livestock production, agricultural engineering and economics as well.

12. Smart technologies in Greek agriculture (Results)
To a scale from 1 to 5, the attendants were
asked to specify the need to adopt such
technologies in livestock production systems
To a scale from 1 to 5, the attendants were
asked to specify the need to adopt such
technologies in crop production systems

13. Smart technologies in Greek agriculture (Results)
To a scale from 1 to 5, the attendants were
asked to specify the need to adopt such
technologies in agricultural economics
To a scale from 1 to 5, the attendants were
asked to specify the need to adopt such
technologies in agricultural engineering

14. Smart technologies in Greek agriculture (Results)
Most of the participants are pointed out that smart farming and IoT technologies can lead to
proper management of the agriculture field and answer to other main socio-economic challenges
in the area, such as the brain drain, youth unemployment and brain waste.
Moreover, they suggested various type of initiatives that are suitable to promote smart farming
within the farming community.

15. Given the present regional analysis of Greece, a set of conclusions and recommendations have
been extracted as follows:
• Agricultural production in Greece has changed the latest years. The radical technological
developments, the increased standards at the level of productivity, quality, cost and
sustainability has affected the whole supply chain of agri-food products.
• Smart farming technologies has been inserted in the country’s agricultural targets.
• Farmers and other relevant stakeholders are aware of smart farming and IoT technologies, while
only a few have been implemented them in real conditions and farms.
• Innovative technologies such as agricultural robotics have not commercial use in country’s
agricultural reality. There is significant lack of technological providers in the country.
• The agricultural academic sector of the country has made huge steps under the scope of the
development of smart technologies and applications, while the national agricultural industry
seems to follow their innovative solutions.
Conclusions

16. • Significant percentage of local farmers are not sure if they want to adopt or not smart
technologies, while this seems to change year by year.
• The use and the effects from the use of new technologies differ among the sub-sectors, agri-
food products, and features of the production units.
• It is important to upgrade, where possible, current field machinery and equipment, or even
promote funding for new technological equipment supply.
• Education, training and new skills related to the better understanding and efficient use,
maintenance and multi-level technological-economic utilization of new applications emerge as
a critical and fundamental parameter, as well.
• It is significant for the country’s status (medium farm size stakeholders) to encourage
cooperative opportunities and fundings towards new technologies adoption.
Conclusions

17. • Secondary agricultural sub-sectors (such as aquaculture, apiculture, forestry) should be
encouraged towards new smart applications development.
• The simultaneous growth of research and agri-food industry is vital under the scope of
knowledge and experience exchange.
• An ecosystem of techno-consulting support of primary production sector throughout the
value chain should be developed for both primary and secondary stages of agricultural
production and processing.
• Environmental targets should be of high priority throughout crop and livestock production
processes. The reduction of C02 emissions can be accomplished by the development of
greener and smarter technologies.
Conclusions

18. Thank you for the attention!
Dr. Efthymios Rodias
email: efthimisr@yahoo.gr