The international technical visit to Greece under the “Precision Farming for a Greener Tomorrow: Advocating for Sustainable Agriculture” project was successfully completed. Throughout the programme, Athens-based academic institutions, field application sites and civil society organisations were visited, and sustainable farming practices were examined on site.
The first stop of the visit was the Agricultural University of Athens. At the international conference held there, current issues in coastal agriculture such as climate change, water scarcity and urbanisation pressure were discussed. Participants also had the opportunity to examine precision farming tools such as GPS-based crop monitoring systems, satellite-assisted remote sensing technologies and chlorophyll meters in the university’s R&D laboratories.
During the visit to Agro-Farm, carried out as the field leg of the programme, digital farming applications were observed on site. Detailed information was obtained on plant health analysis using thermal and multispectral drone technologies, smart irrigation systems and software-assisted precision fertilisation applications. It was observed that these systems increase efficiency in water and fertiliser use and optimise production processes.
In the final part of the visit, a meeting was held with the civil society organisation KEAN (Cell of Alternative Youth Activities), and sustainability projects in Greece were reviewed. Information was shared on youth participation in agriculture, circular economy practices and environmental awareness activities.
In the overall assessment, it was emphasised that cooperation between academia, field practice and civil society constitutes an important model for digital transformation and sustainable production in agriculture.
