“Demo – vineyard” of the Agricultural University of Athens, in the interest of the diffusion of Innovative Plant Protection Technologies in the Agricultural Sector
“Demo – vineyard” of the Agricultural University of Athens, in the interest of the diffusion of Innovative Plant Protection Technologies in the Agricultural Sector
An open event including the conduction of a fruitful discussion upon the subject of the novel innovative plant protection methods and technologies was held on Friday, the 8th of October, in the Multiple Purpose Hall of the Agricultural University of Athens, laying emphasis on the crop -dusting, as well as the Precision Agriculture and the modern digital technologies.
Indeed, throughout that interesting event, technologies, software and platforms were presented, which are put into research and application, by the scientific teams of the laboratory of Agricultural Εngineering and the laboratory of Phytopathology of the Agricultural University of Athens, over the vineyard of the Institution at Spata. It is worth mentioning that the University has every intention of this vineyard soon functioning as a “Demo-Farm”, open to the public, accessible to both producers and consumers, so that they can be informed about the benefits of the new technologies, inasmuch the research made by the University.
At first, the Vice Rector for Finance, Planning and Development, Professor Iordanis Chatzipavlidis, addressed his thought – provoking greeting, highlighting the need for adopting rational practices and contemporary tools and equipment for Greek Agriculture in order to comply successfully with the new Common Agricultural Policy – CAP 2023-2027, the European Green Deal, as well as the Farm to Fork Strategy of the European Union.
Αfterwards, Ms. Francesca Ydraiou, the Director–General of the Hellenic Crop Protection Association, took over the discussion, making a point of the fact that in the years ahead, Greece must be in a position to meet the very high requirements laid down by Europe and this entails quite a demanding transitional period, in an effort to achieve its goals. According to Ms. Francesca Ydraiou, the development and use of biological formulations in addition to the Precision Agriculture technologies, form the key issue of the pertinent discussion across Europe, therefore, this is a state of the art we should all comprehend and adjust to respectively in Greece, too.
The next speaker was the coordinator of the event, Dr. Spyros Fountas, Associate Professor at the laboratory of Agricultural Engineering of the Agricultural University of Athens who elaborated on the current situation in the global Agri-food Sector. In particular, Dr. Spyros Fountas focused on the more significant “problem” that the Advanced Agriculture has to solve, that is meeting the food needs of the ever - increasing world's population, expected to reach 9 billion in 2050, under the reality that the land available for ploughing per inhabitant, inasmuch the potential resources have been constantly decreasing.
Τhe following presentation was undertaken by Dimitrios Tsitsigiannis, Associate Professor of Plant Pathology of the Agricultural University of Athens who introduced the experimental results from the vineyard of the Institution, as well as the scientific methods that allow prediction, prevention, diagnosis, and surveillance of diseases, both on a regional and a national level, too.
Subsequently, Dimitrios Tsitsigiannis, the Associate Professor along with Dr. Spyros Fountas, presented the Project “Optimised Pest Integrated Management to precisely detect and control plant diseases in perennial crops and open-field vegetables” (OPTIMA) H2020, which is coordinated by the Agricultural University of Athens, aiming at developing and applying novel spray methods over different crops in Europe, by using automatic plant protective components (material), prediction models, as well as optical and multispectral data concerning the diagnosis of plant diseases.
The final presentation of the event was made by Vassilis Psiroukis, being an agronomist and scientific associate of the Agricultural University of Athens. Mr Psiroukis presented the experimental procedures, such as the standards and the contemporary scientific methodologies followed by the laboratory of Agricultural Engineering, associated with the experiments about the spraying of pesticides and the study of their environmental footprint, including the measurement and evaluation tools of the effectiveness of every application.
Consequently, modern spray platforms were analysed, comprising both autonomous robotic systems, designed and developed by the competent laboratory and a spraying drone, which is to be applied into experiments over the vineyard of the University, for studying the effectiveness and the “security” of the aerial spraying by means of drones towards the environment and human health.
At the concluding stage of the event, an open discussion took place amongst all those present and the Professors as well as the speakers of that event. As a matter of fact, a great deal of issues were touched, such as the challenges faced and adopted by the Greek producers, the integration of the Precision Agriculture systems into Greek production, besides the restrictions arising by the current national and european legislation, like the international evaluations, regarding the future of Agriculture.
