“Agriculture with Intelligence”: The march towards the digital transformation of the agricultural sector continues
As the digital transition is a key element for the economic development and strategic autonomy of the European Union, the Smart Agriculture Project – Digital Transformation of the Agricultural Sector, is still developing actions towards the digital future of the Greek countryside, with the main objective of shaping an extensive, diverse and modern agro-technological infrastructure, which will provide a amount of data that collected from ground, airborne and satellite sources.
Within the Project 500 Data Collection Support Stations (DSS) have already been installed in agricultural plots across Greece and 50 Enhanced Accuracy Stations in reference plots, while the network of Distribution and Support Centers (KDY) in all of Greece Regions of the country, it is manned and fully operational.
What is “Smart Agriculture”
The Smart Agriculture Project aims to use IT and communication technologies, open digital data and know-how to create a integrated intelligent information system which will recognize and serve the needs of small farmers, the agricultural consultant and agencies who are actively involved in the production process.
During its implementation, there will be design, supply, installation and configuration of logistical infrastructure, which will be based on the collection of data from points of agricultural holdings throughout Greece, the processing of this data by subsystems, in a way to promote intelligent information at the level of a plot of land as well as the drawing up of national agricultural policy.
Technology in the production process
Specifically, the selection of 50 plots of land from all Regions of the country, which will take part in the experimental stage of the Project, has been completed. The specific lands have been divided into management zones, where different practices in terms of nutrition, irrigation and plant protection will be applied in combination, with the aim of recording the results over time and also drawing valuable conclusions both per crop and per region.
In these 50 experimental plots, supporting Data Collection Stations (gaiatron v3.0), multi-sensors soil and hydrometers have been installed, while information collection will also be carried out by Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). The selected crops studied in the project are the following: Radiant, Vine, Maize, Pear, Cotton, Olive, Sunflower, Watermelon, Walnut, Cherry, Onion, Lemon, Tangerine, Apple, Nectarine, Potato, Orange, Peach, Field tomato, Clover/Alfalfa, Pistachio.
Aiming at the creation of a nationwide infrastructure of Data Collection Stations (a total of 3,050 SSRs: 3,000 supporting and 50 enhanced accuracy), interested farmers can be informed and express interest in participating in the said Project through the website https://digiagro.gr/.
Furthermore, the flights of drones (SmiEA) have already started in the 50 experimental plots.
Unmanned Aircraft Systems have a multispectral sensor to receive data, with the processing of which useful conclusions will be drawn about the health status of the plants.
Innovation and Commercial activity
The data collected in all the above ways, do not fragmentarily describe specific parameters of each crop, but can provide information about all the factors that influence it, i.e. the soil, the plant, the atmosphere, the water, the agricultural holding. This means that by making use of this valid information, there is the possibility to produce knowledge which will take into account all the parameters and consequently will be perfect. It is worth noting that the same data will be able to be used in other areas, such as environment, food industry etc
The Project “Agriculture with Intelligence” – Digital Transformation of the Agricultural Sector is jointly implemented by the Association of Companies “NEUROPUBLIC – OTE – SKARMOUTSOS GEORGIOS” within the framework of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan “Greece 2.0”, funded by the European Union – NextGeneration EU and with the Ministry of Rural Development & Food.