Monday, January 25th, 2021

Farming methods have evolved massively over the years, from basic, hand-held tools to the modern, sophisticated machinery we use today. Farmers are now embracing modernity, which has enabled them to achieve the highest potential in whichever farming activity they choose to undertake. Farming methods are increasingly becoming more refined, less manual, yields are increasing, and it’s not uncommon to find beef poultry, beef cattle, and dairy cows on the same farm. But what is causing these changes? The answer is simple. Technology!

Technological advancements have permeated every industry across the world and agriculture is no exception. Nowadays, technology is significantly helping growers and farmers in several ways, including precise forecasting, data-driven decision making, and more. The changes have also resulted in a positive impact on the bottom line of most farmers and ultimately led to improved accesses to food products, at reasonable prices. Let’s delve into the specific ways in which technology has revolutionised agriculture.

1. Online resources

The proliferation of internet technology has dramatically offered farmers unprecedented access to a wealth of valuable resources and tools to make farming easier. Notably, the internet has innumerable production and planning tools to help them forecast future crops.

Additionally, the World Wide Web provides several farming forums that let them exchange ideas seek advice and participate in insightful discussions. These forums offer robust support groups that can help farmers without ever setting foot on the farm.

2. GPS

A few decades ago, the idea of tractors driving themselves on the farm was implausible. However, the entry of GPS technology has completely changed everything. GPS provides precise location information at any point near or on the earth’s surface. So, farming machines integrated with GPS receivers can recognise their position within the farm and adapt their operation to maximise their efficiency at that location.

Now, tractors equipped with GPS technology coupled with automatic steering systems are used to improve the placement of seeds on the farm, thereby reducing wastes and costs. Additionally, GPS guided drones are increasingly being used to perform tasks such as crop spraying, livestock monitoring and 3D mapping.

The applications of GPS are many and transcend their usage in tractors. For example, farmers can use a GPS receiver to detect preselected positions in a farm field for soil sample collection. The selected soil samples are then analysed to generate a fertility map in a geographic information system (GIS). Using the map, farmers can accurately prescribe the quantity of fertiliser required for each sampled section of the farm field. After that, the farmer can use Variable-rate technology (VRT) fertiliser applicators to distribute the precise amount of fertilisers in the area.

3. Sensors

Sensors, like GPS technology, are increasingly being used by farmers to comprehend their crops at a micro level, reduce environmental impacts, and conserve resources. Most of the sensing technologies used in precision agriculture provide critical data that helps farmers to adapt their approaches to the changing environmental factors.

Location sensors use GPS satellites signals to ascertain longitude, latitude and altitude. To effectively triangulate a position, a farmer should have a minimum of three satellites. Optical sensors are also used in precision agriculture to aggregate and process plant colour and soil reflectance data. More precisely, they are used to determine the organic matter, moisture content and clay content in the soil.

Generally, sensors can monitor everything from soil temperature to humidity levels in grain silos. Also, they can offer very critical knowledge of soil health. And importantly, sensor technology helps farmers to use their irrigation waters more efficiently, minimising on wastage, and lowering costs.

4. Mobile devices

As technology improves every day, mobile technology also has advanced, as evidenced by the number of apps popping up. This development has significantly impacted every sphere of life with agriculture too benefiting from the progress.

The actual game changes have been mobile applications. They have altered the lives of farmers and agricultural field holders, for the better. Famers have access to several mobile apps that can help them to collect information on their field farms, check the weather, and receive relevant updates.

With farmers getting insightful details from mobile apps, they are smoothly transitioning from handling fields to creating farm maps and facilitating the use of drones. The software behind the apps put them in the drivers' seat when managing everything from strategy formulation to tracking progress.

5. Smart farming

When all the above technologies are merged, the resulting product will be a smart farming system, often referred to as precision agriculture. Smart farming involves the implementation of contemporary Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) into agriculture, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), GPS, robotics, sensors and actuators, Big Data, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs, drones), precision equipment, plus much more.

Using irrigation as an example, we can demonstrate how different technologies are combined to offer smart farming. Before watering the farm field, a farmer can mount a sensor on an irrigator to assess the moisture level of the soil. The information obtained is then used to vary the quantity of water required.

Farmers can use drones to assess plant health and enable them to take any corrective measures, where applicable. Similarly, smart farming techniques allow farmers to monitor the individual needs of their animals better and regulate their nutrition correspondingly, thereby averting disease and improving their health.

Smart farming provides farmers with limitless potential to deliver a more sustainable and productive output based on field-generated data. Also, it gives farmers an added value through better and timely decision-making.

Undoubtedly, technology is significantly altering the way we live and work. The adoption of various technologies in agriculture has brought several disruptions in the industry, with specific emphasis on agricultural jobs. Increasingly, agricultural technician jobs are now on demand to cater to the needs of the changing times. Nonetheless, it is clear that technology has changed agriculture, for the better!

Monday, January 25th, 2021

One of the newer innovations in food production is a closed-loop system called aquaponics, where fish and veggies are grown together using recirculated water. With population levels set to reach 9.7 billion by 2050, more mouths to feed calls for food production methods that are both eco-friendly and resource-conscious. The world’s wild fish stocks are decreasing, and production of farmed fish has doubled in the last 15 years. By moving these farms onto land, commercial scale aquaponics operations could revolutionize food production, using less space, water and energy than ever before.

Here’s how it works

In a recirculating system, fish tank water is pumped to vegetables in a greenhouse. Aquaponics uses no soil, and instead the plants sit cozily in floating foam rafts with roots hanging down into water-filled tubs. Fish excrement acts as a natural fertilizer, and in turn, the veggies purify the water in this mutually beneficial system.

The third player in the system is the extremely important beneficial bacteria that break down fish waste into a form of nitrogen that plants can use to grow. Without them, the waste wouldn’t get properly recycled.

Two inputs power the system: fish feed and energy, and both can be sustainable if sourced properly. Carnivorous fish such as salmon rely on protein-based feed typically sourced from forage fish. Targeting these fish can be unsustainable, however some fisheries are improving their environmental impact through assessments and responsible fishing plans. The use of insects as feed instead of forage fish, and reliance on renewable energy are good ways to make these systems more eco-friendly. Rome-based aquaponics venture Some aquaponics companies operate on solar energy and their fish feed on microalgae-based feed.

While the vast majority of aquaponics is freshwater, pioneering research into the use of saltwater species is catching up.

Friday, November 06th, 2020

Smart Farming team meets online from the beginning of the project once a month for Steering Committee meeting and discussion over current matters. Beside these online monthly meetings, the project foresees four meetings in different participating countries each 6 moths. After the first meeting in Sofia, Bulgaria, that was held in the first month of the project, the Second "in person" transnational meeting was planned to be hosted by SATEAN Foundation in Romania. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions in participating countries, partners had to meet online. The meeting was held for two full days on the 5th and 6th November 2020 and the agenda of the meeting included the following main topics:

• presentations of the findings of all country reports and the overall project report for Intellectual Output 1 Field and Desk Research

• Testimony from a startup in the field of hydroponics from Italy - "Biopic", presents Renato Reggiani

• Presentation "Food foresight - opportunities arising from COVID19 in Agrifood in Southern and Central Eastern Europe" -Klaudia Niwecka

• Working discussion over the Intellectual Output 2 Handbook for trainers

The presentations from the event may be found here: https://bit.ly/presentationsTPM2

All results from Field and Desk Research could be found in the Downloadable content section of this website

Tuesday, October 06th, 2020

In the context of the pandemic caused by COVID-19, and potentially other future crises, the innovation can contribute to strengthening the resilience and adaptive capacity of agriculture and forestry.

In particular, the COVID-19 crisis has shown the importance and resilience of the enhanced cooperation between the world of education and training and the world of work, the assisting people in the acquisition and development of basic skills and key qualities, as well as in improving the level of key skills and abilities in terms of their importance for the labor market and their contribution to the united society.

The Smart Farming 4.0 All project has been working on several activities that support this sector in terms of strength, resilience and adaptability, to make a significant contribution to the improvement of the agricultural sector in the countries of the European Union by promoting innovation, exchange of experience and know-how between the world of education and training and the world of work.

Partners have come together to establish the Smart Farming 4.0 All consortium, in order to extensive field research addressed to a wide variety of relevant stakeholders and professionals, to create a Smart Farming Handbook and disseminate it freely to everybody interested, and to develop specific training curricula that will be utilized to train experts from the participating organizations as “carriers” of innovation, in order to be able to spread and mainstream this novel method back to their regions. Sharing knowledge and capacity development are among Smart Farming 4.0 All ’s priorities to build a collaborative ecosystem in EU with industrial partners, SMEs, scientists, policymakers, social representatives, and other relevant stakeholders.

Tuesday, June 09th, 2020

The year 2020 marks the beginning of the “Decade of Action” proclaimed by the United Nations for achieving the goals and targets set out in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Agenda. In an increasingly digital world, information and communication technologies (ICTs) play a key role as development enablers that can facilitate countries’ capabilities to reach all the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic which continues to ravage so many of our populations and economies, there can no longer be any doubt that dramatically accelerating progress on the SDGs means dramatically accelerating progress to extend digital connectivity to the 3.6 billion still totally cut off from the online world. Digital is the foundation on which we can build social and economic resilience. We have never faced a situation of greater urgency, and renewed global recognition of the importance of digital infrastructure, services and skills presents many unprecedented opportunities to make real and rapid progress.

Europe throughout the years, made significant progress, becoming world leader in broadband connectivity. However, a lot remains to be done to bridge connectivity, affordability and digital skills divides across the countries. The impact of policy and regulatory frameworks on the development of digitization in Europe is positive. In Europe, an increase of 10 per cent in digitization results in 1.4 per cent growth in gross domestic product (GDP) per capita.

While Europe leads in digital agriculture development, the e-agriculture sector in many parts of Europe still suffers from underinvestment. As agriculture becomes more and more knowledge-intensive, having access to timely and accurate information tailored to specific locations and conditions is critical to helping farmers enhance their efficiency in agricultural production. E-agriculture centres on designing, developing, and applying innovative methods of ICT use within the agricultural sector in the rural domain.Many stakeholders have long recognized the need for strategies for national e-agriculture, also known as digital agriculture. However, most countries have yet to adopt or implement a national strategy for the agricultural sector's use of ICTs. E-agriculture strategies will help rationalize financial and human resources, address (holistically) ICT opportunities and challenges of the agricultural sector, generate new revenue streams and improve the lives of people in rural communities.

Digital technologies are rapidly transforming how people, business and governments work. They affect the entire food system, every actor of that system, and generate significant benefits in agriculture by reducing the costs of information, transactions and supervision. While digital technologies can make significant contributions towards the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), they raise economic, social and ethical concerns, in particular with respect to privacy and security, but also in terms of the disruptive impact that they can have on business, employment and markets. While these concerns are common across all sectors of the economy, the transformational impact that digital technology can have specifically on the food and agricultural sector is particularly broad.

Agricultural and rural development in the region of Europe has to overcome various challenges transforming to sustainable food systems and nutrition sensitive value chains. Such challenges include the triple burden of malnutrition undernutrition (overweight, obesity, and micronutrient deficiencies); climate change adaptation; increased food loss and waste; rural divides and urbanization, including the outmigration of young people; small-size farming domination; and aging of farmers in the Balkans. The COVID-19 crisis threatens the food security and nutrition. In the longer term, the economic consequences can have implications on the functioning of food systems and thus also environmental and social disruptions. Emphasis needs to be given to both short and long-term measures that supports a transition to more sustainable food systems that are in better balance with nature and that support healthy diets – and thus better health prospects - for all. The sustainable nutrition sensitive agriculture value chains from farm to fork require equal access to information and communication technologies (ICTs) for all stakeholders. However, in Europe the adoption of new technologies is lagging behind for smallholder farmers. The reasons of this rural digital divide are often related to availability and quality of access, connectivity costs, appropriate and adapted content that can be activated. The solutions reside in participatory processes, involving all actors working in partnerships using traditional and new technologies.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a wakeup call and has accelerated the use of digital technologies in order keep working and stay connected. It also revealed the divides that persist between those who have access and those who do not. Digital technology dividends are not automatic, and not everyone can benefit equally. Hence, there is a critical need for actions at policy level to maximize the benefits and minimize the potential risks, and ensure government commitment to upscale new solutions and create a structured enabling environment for innovation development, support systems and capacity development, which are pertinent for generating a development change through ICTs in agriculture. In accordance with the core principles of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, governments in the Europe shall take measures to leave no one behind and close digital, rural and gender divides, known as the triple divide. As mentioned in the UN Secretary-General’s Roadmap for Digital Cooperation, more than ever we need to connect, respect and protect people in the digital age. People working in agriculture, forestry and fishery, living in remote and rural areas should not be left behind.Coordination is needed to sustainably address the digital transformation of agriculture.

Responding to the call of the 2020 Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA), it is proposed that FAO host an International Platform for Digital Food and Agriculture that will

i) promote the coordination and strength the linkages between international forums for agriculture and those for the digital economy to enhance the awareness of the international community to issues specific to the digitalization of the food and agriculture sectors; and

ii) support governments with policy recommendations, best practices, and voluntary guidelines that can enhance the benefits of digital technology applications on agriculture, while addressing potential economic, social and ethical impacts and concerns.

Tuesday, January 14th, 2020

So much more goes into safely feeding the world than the ingredients on our plates. Whether it’s soil quality, availability of clean water, or the effects of climate change, the global farming community is constantly having to overcome challenges to grow fresh produce for a rising population while taking care of the planet. From autonomous robots to satellites and cutting-edge science, farmers around the world are deploying new technologies to help them work in smart and cost-effective ways.

This is a unique moment in the history of agriculture. In earlier times, farming was a trade passed down from one generation to another, the farmers of tomorrow are coming well equipped with digital knowledge and skills. Over the past 30 years, tech- and innovation-focused sustainable agriculture has moved to become a major trend.

Smart Farming is a concept of farming management using modern Information and communication technologies to increase the quantity and quality of products. Among the technologies available for present-day farmers there are:

• Sensing technologies, including soil scanning, water, light, humidity, temperature management;

• Software applications — specialized software solutions that target specific farm types;

• Communication technologies, such as cellular communication;

• Positioning technologies, including GPS;

• Hardware and software systems that enable IoT-based solutions, robotics and automation; and

• Data analytics, that underlies the decision making and prediction processes.

The research activities of the Smart Farming 4.0 All Consortium were divided in two parts:

• Field research through interviews and surveys addressed to relevant representatives of the academic, VET, entrepreneurial and public sectors, in order to gather information about the current forma and non-formal education and training curricula concerning the overall smart farming methods, as well as the level of applied knowledge etc.;

• Desk research and literature review in order to identify and summarize relevant good practices at this field, gaps in education and training of formal and non-formal bodies and networks, as well as other projects, initiatives and policymaking guidelines that focus on urban and overall sustainable farming techniques, not only in the participating countries but at a European and global level too. The outcomes of those two research approaches will be formulated into Regional Reports by the project partners, including identified gaps in theory and practice, points for improvement, related literature sources, etc.

The research in each participating country are focus on:

• Existing smart farming applications in each country, as well as the overall smart farming establishments with focus on hydroponics and aquaponics and their development over the past years-decades;

• Level of adoption and reception of such cultivation techniques from the local communities, as well as the overall level of awareness of the countries’ population;

• Existence, or lack thereof, of learning, teaching and training material for development of smart farming at all levels, i.e. secondary, tertiary, adult and VET;

• Institutions in place that help in this direction, i.e. Governments’, Universities’ and other organizations’ related operations, as well as the relevant legislation and overall policymaking initiatives towards the promotion of environment-friendly cultivation techniques;

• Proportion of individual, small scale, larger scale and industrial scale utilization of smart urban farming methods, their market success, successful technologies, the most appropriate vegetables and fish to include for each country’s climate, etc.

• Subsequently, the analysis of the research results aims the enhancing of the knowledge over the current state, popularity and room for development of smart urban farming, as well as to assess what would be the most suitable channel for expansion and what measures need to be taken, i.e. through public bodies, civil society organizations, or through industrial applications.

Tuesday, March 24th, 2020

By economic sectors, the Gross Value Added (GVA) for 2018 in Bulgaria was distributed as follows:

· Industry (including construction) - 25.8%;

· Services - 70.3%;

· Agrarian (agriculture, forestry and fisheries) - 3.9%.

The share of the agrarian sector in total GVA decreased by 0.8 in 2018 percentage points compared to the previous year.

According to preliminary seasonally adjusted NSI data, in the first and second quarters of 2019, the total GVA for the country's economy increased by 3.3% and 3.7% respectively compared to the corresponding period of 2018 in real terms.

In Bulgaria, the area with agricultural purpose in 2017 is 5 224402 ha, which represents about 47% of the country's territory. The used agricultural area (UAA) is formed by arable land, perennials, nurseries, permanent grasslands and family gardens. In 2017 it amounted to 5 029529 ha or 45.3% of the country's territory, increasing by 0.2% compared to the previous year. Arable land are the areas that are included in crop rotation, temporary meadows with cereals and legumes grasses, fallow land and greenhouses. In 2017 it decreased slightly (by 0.2%) compared to the previous year, to 3473825 ha, which represents 69.1% of the utilized agricultural area. In the 2016/2017 business year the total number of farmers registered in the register under Ordinance No. 3/1999 is 96476, which is 1827 more than the previous year. As of the beginning of August 2018, the registered farmers in the 2017/18 business year is 92328.

Agriculture is still an important economic sector in Bulgaria. By 2017, it employed nearly 7% of the working population. The useful agricultural surface is almost half the national territory, and by 2018, crop production represented a share of 69,2% of the total value of agricultural production.

According to statistics, in the last five years in Bulgaria more than 1000 decares of new greenhouses have been built - block type - from 5 to 30 decares, but only 5% of the irrigated fields are automated. The agricultural sector in the region needs technological support to be competitive in the European and global market.

The Rural Development Program of the Republic of Bulgaria 2014-2020 states that access to a standard broadband network is provided for almost all households in rural areas (99%), but in sparsely populated rural areas only 60% of households have access. to a fixed broadband network, compared to 90% on average for the country. Only 10% of rural households have access to next generation networks. Broadband penetration in rural areas has increased significantly in recent years but remains low - only 37% of households in predominantly rural areas have an Internet subscription. The use of the Internet by businesses and households for e-commerce, internet banking, information and training is far from potentially possible. As of the end of June 2015, Bulgaria has coverage of next generation broadband infrastructure (> 30Mbps) amounting to 72% of households, but reaches only 2.7% in rural areas, which is well below the EU average of 27.8.

Since the accession of Bulgaria to the European Union in 2007 to 2018, more than BGN 1 billion have been invested in modernization of agricultural holdings in the Republic of Bulgaria alone under the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development. In the last two programming periods, however, investing in digital solutions has not been a priority. For this reason, there is no clear information on whether and how many of these investments include digitalization and precision farming technologies. It is possible that as part of the investments made so far in modernization of agricultural holdings, this type of digital solutions is included, but due to the lack of indicators such data do not exist. At present, the funds only for investments in digital solutions and technologies for precision agriculture are from Extremely private and depend on the economic capabilities of the individual farm or entrepreneur. For this reason, at the national level there is a lack of comprehensive information about the investments made so far and the level of digitalization and the available technologies for precision agriculture.

With regard to the GVA formed by the agricultural sector, preliminary data indicate a slight annual increase in real terms by 0.1% in the first quarter of 2019 and an increase of 3.9% in the second quarter. [1]

Bulgaria is at the last 28th place as per the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) among all EU countries for 2020.[2]

The report of the European Commission on the index for the penetration of digital technologies in the economy and society for 2018 states that the overall level of skills in the field of digital technologies in the Republic of Bulgaria is among the lowest in the EU, varying widely socio-economic groups. Despite the increase in the number of people with at least basic skills in the field of digital technologies from 26% in 2017 to 29% in 2018, Bulgaria remains among the EU countries with the lowest results - only for comparison in 2016 170 million EU citizens or 44% of the total population of the Union have basic or no digital skills.

This is due to the low number of people using the Internet, which accounts for 62% of all people aged 16-74. The adoption of digital technologies by enterprises in Bulgaria is slow. In recent years, a gradually evolving ecosystem of digital and technology entrepreneurs has emerged, but investment in the digital economy is still limited. These insufficient investments, together with the shortage of ICT specialists, are the possible reasons for the slower digitalization in Bulgaria, compared to other Member States. In 2017, the number of digitized enterprises was among the lowest in the EU at 12% -13%. Although Bulgarian companies are significant users of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), their consumption of social media or cloud computing services remains among the lowest in the EU, at 9% and 5.5% of the total number of enterprises, respectively. The share of SMEs selling online is also well below the EU average, at 7.1% and 17.2% respectively. The sector is not exempt of changes neither. According to the ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Forestry in the “Annual report on the state and development of agriculture of 2019”, in 2018, the gross value added of the agricultural sector to Bulgarian economy shrank by 2 % on an annual basis. However, based on the same report, the value of the gross production from the Agriculture sector showed an increase of 1,5% compared to the previous year. In a nutshell, the impact of the agriculture sector in the Bulgarian economy decreased, but at the same time, its gross value production increased at the same year. This by itself is not necessarily a bad thing, because this decrease can be explained by an increase in the impact of other economic sectors in the Bulgarian economy as a result of investments or a modernization of the economy. Nonetheless, there are many factors concerning this tendency, and the entry of Bulgaria in the European common market might have had more weight than others.

Monitoring the conditions for the development of production in real time, precise control of enemies, tracking "farm to fork", balancing consumption and other new technologies, easing the administrative burden, accurate prediction of stages in crop development - all this is possible with the application of the latest computer, robotic and artificial intelligence technologies. Progress and availability of new sensors connected via the Internet of Things (Internet of things-IoT), precise and Internet-related and geolocation mechanization, Blockchain distributed computer platforms (Blockchain), artificial intelligence systems processing large data sets (Big Data) in real time, robots, satellite systems, drones, ubiquitous access to information - these are the new tools of progress in agricultural business

Access to the EU (European Union) has made a positive impact on the development of Bulgarian agriculture. As we mentioned before, there is growth in the gross value added generated in the sector. There has also been growth in the labor production and investments, and there has been a boost of trade with agricultural goods. European investments in Bulgarian agricultural sector have been responsible for the modernization of it, increasing its productivity and competitiveness.

Currently, EU is the main commercial partner of Bulgaria in the trade of agricultural products. In 2018, agricultural trade with the EU increased by 6% compared to 2017. 75,3% of Bulgaria’s total agricultural exports share shipped to EU and that of agricultural imports – 79%.

This scenario looks very positive for Bulgaria and its farmers. The injection of European money into the sector in form of support programs, modernization strategies and other investments, have shown results.

There has been a tendency to permanently reduce the number of farms, mainly at the expense of small and self-dependent farms. Since the accession of Bulgaria to the EU until 2019, the number of farms has decreased over 3 times. There has also been a tendency to concentrate land in hands of major land holders. By 2019, these holders managed the 83% of the entire national cultivable land. Small-sized farms are of a particular importance to Bulgaria. They employ a large number of workers in rural areas and help in the fight against poverty. Is for this reason that, even though the macroeconomic numbers of Bulgaria can be interpreted in a positive way, there are doubts over the role European and State investments have when it comes to boost small-sized farmers.

The country has adopted a Strategy for digitalization of agriculture and agricultural regions of Republic of Bulgaria in 2019.

The level of existing smartfarming applications is low, but the country takes steps to accelerate the digitalization in agriculture in the period 2021-2027.

The strategy for digitalisation of agriculture and rural areas of the Republic of Bulgaria envisages the following areas of activity to develop the Bulgarian agricultural economy potential: building and development of appropriate digital infrastructure for communication and connectivity; investments in modernization and technologies for precision agriculture; development of digital networks and use of software applications in business management and decision making; awareness, training and advisory services for the development of digital skills and qualifications, research and innovation, partnership for exchange and transfer of innovation, development of experimentation infrastructure and access to it.This area of impact corresponds to Priority 6 "Sustainable Agriculture" in the national program "Bulgaria 2030" and Goal 2 "End of hunger - achieving food security and better nutrition, promoting sustainable agriculture" from the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

As part of the European Union's Sixth Priority, set out in Regulation 1305/2013, namely "promoting social inclusion, poverty reduction and economic development in rural areas, with a focus on improving access to information and communication technologies (ICT) , their use and quality in rural areas ”, the Rural Development Program of the Republic of Bulgaria 2014-2020 provides funds in the amount of EUR 30,000,000 under measure 7.3 - Support for broadband infrastructure, including its creation, improvement and expansion, passive broadband infrastructure and measures to access solutions through broadband infrastructure and e-government.

In the period 2021-2027 digital technologies in agriculture will continue to be a high priority of the European Union. In this context, the EU's Horizon Europe research program will provide € 10 billion for research and development in the food industry, agriculture, rural development and the bioeconomy. As part of the national decisions, as a result of which the country will develop its Strategic Plan for the CAP, Bulgaria will have to identify the relevant funds from the European Agricultural Fund for Agricultural Guarantee and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development to set aside for digitization. of the agricultural sector. As a result of the analysis and the identified needs at the end of the Strategy, the necessary European and national funds that the Republic of Bulgaria should set aside for digitalization of its agriculture will be indicated.

[1] https://www.mzh.government.bg/media/filer_public/2020/02/11/agrarian_report_2019.pdf - last accessed October 10^th 2020

[2] https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/desi - last accessed October 9^th, 2020

Tuesday, April 7th, 2020

For Cyprus the GVA for 2019 from agrarian sector was 2.3% (% of the total GVA).[1]

Cyprus is on the 24^th position as per the DESI index 2020 and on the foremost place of all EU countries in this report.

According to Stylianou (2014, p. 7, Adamides et al. 2013), the main problems of the Agriculture sector in Cyprus are:

· Over-segmentation of the agricultural land

· Aging of the farming population, issue of lack of successors from the new generation

· Low educational level of the farming population. Based on the research sample of Adamides et al. (2013, p. 26), approximately 50% of the farmer population is over 40 years old (25% over 51 years old).

· Less than ideal soil quality, tough weather/climate conditions like irregular raining seasons, prolonged dry seasons, hailstorms etc.

· High production costs

· Problems in terms of trading agricultural goods, caused by the lack of market organisation.

Internet and Communication Technologies can help the farmer population in many ways. They can enable easy access to information/education, communication with peers and partners in the supply chain and they can act as a powerful marketing tool (Adamides et al. 2013). In summary, ICTs can greatly enhance the efficiency of the agriculture business. Surprisingly though, data provided by Stylianou et al. (2014, 2018) and Adamides et al. 2013 reveal that a large number of Cypriot farmers are not using a computer or access the internet in the context of their business. More specifically, research (Adamides et al. 2013, p. 26) showed that approximately 50% of farmers do not use the computer or access the internet on their own. As far as the use of ICT in Cyprus agriculture, the aforementioned research concludes that regardless of using ICT means or not, the overwhelming majority of farmers consider them useful in terms of efficiency, production and innovation. Based on the above, it is reasonable to suggest that before introducing advanced Smart Farming methods to the farmer population in Cyprus, it is important to first create opportunities for education toward a basic ICT skill level.

[1] https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/food-farming-fisheries/farming/documents/agri-statistical-factsheet-cy_en.pdf - last accesses Octobre 10^th, 2020.

Tuesday, April 21th, 2020

Greece performance in terms of digitization is below the EU average. On the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) Greece ranks 27th out of the 28 EU Member States in 2017 - 2020, indicating a low integration of more sophisticated digital technologies throughout the economy. The country’s performance in digital public services and digital skills remains low, a fact that can act as a barrier for further development of the digital economy and society.

To reverse the above negative trends, the Greek government during 2016, established a new Ministry for Digital Policy, Telecommunications, and Media with the responsibility for the policy-making, design, overall coordination and monitoring of the implementation of the ICT investments in the country. This Ministry is thus responsible for setting the horizontal policy, while other Ministries are responsible for implementing various measures in accordance to the National Digital Strategy 2016 –2021, launched also during 2016.

At the same time Greece is gradually recovering from a steep ten-year recession period that reduced GDP by approximately 25%. GDP grew by 1.9% during 2018. The Government’s revised growth strategy aims at transforming the country’s economic model based on exports and high value-added sectors such as energy, food, agriculture, logistics and life sciences. Digital technologies are considered as a key factor for this transformation, while there is an increased realization by all stakeholders of the need for an industry 4.0 type of strategy and for increasing collaboration between stakeholders. However, the level of coordination between the various ministries and stakeholders is currently rather week.

Overall, at least EUR 341million have been made available in the period 2017-2018 under the different pillars of the Digitizing European Industry (DEI) initiative and support mechanisms. Further on, while large and multinational companies appear to keep up with technological evolutions, public administration and particularly SMEs seem to fall behind. To address this issue, several initiatives have been launched during 2018 related mainly to pillars 2and 3 of the DEI, focusing mainly on SMEs and startups, such as the measures a) Digital Step, b) Digital Jump, c)

Digital transformation of the agricultural sector and d) Research-Create-Innovate, while a number of important initiatives were also announced with the aim to digitize public administration. Given that these initiatives have only been launched recently, or are still in the phase of implementation, the impact is limited so far, but in time they are expected to increase the pace of digitalization of the Greek economy. The same holds for the increasing number of support mechanisms available particularly for SME’s and start-ups, as the tax relief and venture fund schemes. Further initiatives have been launched focusing on upgrading the digital skills of the work force, while gradually the regulatory framework is becoming more conducive to the digital age, following trends across the EU (transposition of EU regulations).

However, when it comes to regulation, important barriers still exist impeding the digital transformation, such as conflicting legislation and overlapping responsibilities between various national bodies. Finally, Government support for the digitization of industry is expected to gain in momentum in the near future, with several measures already under preparation, such as the National action for the participation of Greek industry in the 4th Industrial revolution, the establishment of a fund under the New Economy Development Fund ("TANEO") for investments in firms active in sectors related to the 4thIndustrial Revolution and training schemes in the field of ICT (Software, databases, IT Security etc).

Greece is progressing toward developing the infrastructure for "smart" agriculture and is one of the few EU countries that has a national strategy for this sector, investing in innovation with new digital tools that will apply even to small farmers.

The “digital transformation of Greek agriculture” project is the first national digital agriculture infrastructure in Europe and is developed by the Ministry of Digital Policy, Telecommunications and Media, in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, based on precision farming technologies.

According to the new delivery model of the post-2020 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), EU member states will have to come up with their own national strategies adjusted to their different needs.

The digital transformation of the agricultural sector is a one-way street in which we must work altogether: the state, the academic community, rural businesses, cooperatives, agricultural advisers and, first of all, farmers, both young and old, in order to create the country’s agricultural growth prospects towards in the post-2020 CAP,” Stelios Rallis, Secretary General for Digital Policy at the Ministry of Digital Policy, told EURACTIV.com.

The project is designed to cover, initially, half of the arable land in Greece, about 15 million acres and 20 of the country’s most exported crops, including cotton, grain, rice, cotton, olive, vines and citrus.

The platform will gather data from existing meteorological stations of the National Meteorological Service, the Earth observation satellite systems of the Copernicus program and from the 6,500 earth stations that will be installed in the 13 regions of the country in three phases.

“With the help of 6,500 earth stations, data collection and mobile telephony networks, data related to agricultural production, such as on temperature, air, soil, and water, are collected and transmitted to the platform,” the Greek official said.

The data will then be classified into a data warehouse in cloud infrastructures where they will be processed in order to provide tailored services to meet the needs of each producer.

“Farmers will be receiving, via a SMS and not necessarily to a smartphone, warnings for extreme weather events and in the second year, personalised information on the irrigation, fertilisation and plant protection of the crops,” Rallis noted.

Farmers will also have access to electronic applications that will allow them to digitise crop data, such as when and how much water was used, and the timing and volume of rainfall.

The government also wants to engage the academic community in this digitisation effort, focusing on the future of agronomists.

For this reason, the digital policy ministry signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Agricultural University of Athens, which provides for the training of agronomists in new technologies and in particular on agricultural data collection and processing platforms.

Tuesday, May 26th, 2020

For Turkey the GVA ranks the highest in the participating countries in the current report and is 8.034% (% of the total GVA). Agriculture is an important part of the Turkish economy, and it contributes 9 percent to GDP and employs a quarter of the labour force. Agricultural land covers the third of the country, and there are 6 million agricultural holdings (with an average size of 6 ha). Partly due to the favourable climate and soil conditions, the country has a diverse food-production and Turkey is self-sufficient in terms of agricultural products. The Turkish agriculture has grown steadily in the last few years, and the coun- try’s target for its agricultural sector is to be among the top five agriculture producers globally by 2023.

Turkey ranks 9th in terms of agricultural products in the world with 56.9 billion dollars in production with current prices in 2019, ranks 23 in terms of exports to 18.4 billion dollars. While 95% of exports consist of foodstuffs and 5% of agricultural raw materials, 66% of imports consist of foodstuffs and the remaining part consists of agricultural raw materials.

Internet penetration is just under the 50 percent mark, as about 47 percent of the population use the internet and almost the half of households have internet sub- scriptions. The number of broadband internet sub- scriptions has been growing steadily in the last few years and this trend will continue. According to the relevant indicators of the Network Readiness Index, the level of competition in the telecommunication sector is high, and it is mirrored in mobile coverage and in the affordability of mobile services.

Information society development began under the umbrella of the project “e-Transformation Turkey” in 2003 with the aim of coordination, developing e-government and facilitating EU-integration. After two action plans (for 2003-04 and for 2005), the first information society development strategy of the country has been created for the period 2006-2010, with seven action lines (e.g. social transformation, ICT adoption by businesses, citi- zen-oriented service provision, widespread and afforda- ble telecommunications infrastructure and services).

In early 2015, a new document was adopted: 2015- 2018 Information Society Strategy and Action Plan, the responsible entity for the strategy is the Ministry of Development. The main driving forces behind the creation of the document are the Tenth National Development Plan and Digital Agenda for Europe, because of the ongoing EU-integration process. The strategy has eight priority areas:

• ICT sector development

• Broadband infrastructure and industrial competitiveness

• Qualified Human Resources and Employment

• Adoption of ICT in society

• Information security and user confidence

• ICT and innovation

• Internet entrepreneurship and e-commerce

• User centered public services[1]

[1] http://www.fao.org/3/I8303EN/i8303en.pdf - last accessed on October 1^st 2020

Tuesday December 10th, 2019

The first transnational partner meeting under Smart Farming 4.0 All Project, which sets itself a goal to make a significant contribution to improving the agricultural sector in the EU countries by promoting the innovation, exchanging experience and know-how between the world of education and training and the world of farming labor took place in Sofia, Bulgaria, on December 9-10, 2019. The project is implemented under Key Activity 2: Strategic Partnerships of the Erasmus + European Program for Education, Training, Youth and Sport. Its duration is 24 months (December 2019 to November 2021), with a grant amount 155 095,00 €.

The Smart Farming 4.0 All project brings together six partners from Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece and Cyprus with different backgrounds, expertise and culture, which share a common vision to assist people in acquiring and developing basic skills and key attributes regarding their importance in the labor market and their contribution to a united society and promote the improvement of quality, the integration of innovation and internationalization in the field of agriculture. The Smart Farming Handbook will be developed under the project and a specific training curricula will be developed, that will be utilized to train experts from the participating organizations as “carriers” of innovation. This will ensure relevance and recognition of the achieved results in other European countries.

The leading partner of the project “Smart Farming in the Fourth Industrial Revolution” is Via Pontica Foundation and the other partners are:

• OECON GROUP BULGARIA, Bulgaria

• DEKAPLUS BUISINESS SERVICES, Cyprus

• FUNDATIA SATEAN, Romania

• HAKAN KANSO, Turkey

• EPIMELITIRIO CHALKIDIKI, Greece

Partners have come together to establish the “Smart Farming 4.0 All” consortium, in order to extensive field research addressed to a wide variety of relevant stakeholders and professionals, to create a Smart Farming Handbook and disseminate it freely to everybody interested, and to develop specific training curricula that will be utilized to train experts from the participating organizations as “carriers” of innovation, in order to be able to spread and mainstream this novel method back to their regions.

The project will have a wide-ranging impact on different sectors and countries facing similar challenges. It will focus on smart farming methods such as aquaponics – growing fish and plants together in a built, recirculating ecosystem that uses natural bacterial cycles to transform fish waste into plant nutrients. Environmentally friendly, natural method for growing foods that use the best of aquaculture and hydroponics without the need for discarding water, filtering or adding chemical fertilizers.

During the two-day event, many fruitful discussions were held, as was talk about the launch and implementation of the project in accordance with the pre-set work plan and schedule.

On the first day, an introductory presentation of the Smart Farming 4.0 All project was made and the focus of the discussions was on the following key points: the development and adoption of the Project Management Handbook, Quality Assurance Plan and Project Dissemination Plan, a logo, website and design of the project page.

The second day of the meeting was devoted to horizontal project activities, including: quality assurance, evaluation, publicity and promotion, technical and financial implementation and accountability. The event ended with the presentation of a Work Plan for the two project years, the planning of the next partnership meeting and an assessment of the current one.

Tuesday December 17th, 2019

Urbanization rates are gradually rising and it is estimated that by 2050 around 80% of the world’s population will live in cities, while the total population of the earth is expected to increase by 3 billion. This upward trend can lead to food shortage, as arable land already cultivated to cover these feeding requirements amounts to 80% of available farmland.

Through smart farming though, larger food production is possible because the production can take place during the whole year without interruptions, while weather conditions in many cases have no impact on it. Apart from a possible future food crisis that may arise from poor environmental management, another issue that arises is that of high pollution caused by the use of fossil fuels due to the transportations; it is estimated that the produced goods travel thousands of kilometers on average before they reach our table.

Smart urban farming will also automatically nullify the distance from the production site to the table, providing a green solution to the above problem. Cultivation methods vary from crops in soil, terraces, gardens and balconies in our personal space to crops in community public spaces and gardens in suburban areas. We will focus on smart farming methods such as aquaponics that is the cultivation of fish and plants together in a constructed, recirculating ecosystem utilizing natural bacterial cycles to convert fish waste to plant nutrients.

It is an environmentally friendly, natural food- growing method that harnesses the best attributes of aquaculture and hydroponics without the need to discard any water or filtrate or add chemical fertilizers. It enables growing food for oneself, the community, or for the market without the use of harmful pesticides and herbicides, while using the least amount of resources, thereby leaving the smallest carbon footprint. In addition, aquaponics is suitable for environments with limited land and water, which makes it an urban-friendly technology as well as a sustainable farming technique. This modern idea of smart farming, whether it is performed in greenhouses or through indoor techniques, can be optimized by utilizing the controlled- environment agriculture (CEA) technology, where all environmental factors i.e. temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide, pH, etc. can be controlled and automated based on the Industry 4.0 trends.

Most importantly, smart farming systems do not require much prior expert knowledge in order to start your own cultivation; it requires resources like a backyard or a rooftop, and a hands-on approach combined with the right skills. Nevertheless, in most countries throughout Europe, they are still in an infantile stage, even though it is rapidly developing during the last few years.

Especially concerningthe project’s participating countries (Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Turkey and Cyprus) where farming and fishing are two very important – yet not as modernized – industries, new smart farming methods cannot be located in many curricula of VET organizations or HEIs, nor are there many large-scale establishments, either for profit or non-profit.

This is why the partners have come together to establish the “Smart Farming 4.0 All” consortium, in order to conduct extensive desk and field research addressed to a wide variety of relevant stakeholders and professionals, to create a Smart Farming Handbook and disseminate it freely toeverybody interested, and to develop specific training curricula that will be utilized to train experts from the participating organizations as “carriers” of innovation, in order to be able to spread and main stream this novel method back to their regions. Therefore, the project will have a wide consequent impact to different sectors and countries that, nonetheless, face similar challenges.

Also, taking under account the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the project’simplementation will provide a common set of tools that will be addressed and disseminated to everybody interested to – literally – get their hands dirty: young and adult students, entrepreneurs and fellow professionals, academics, trainers and even policymakers will be presented with the project’s results and the ability to utilize them, each one for their respective purposes, but always with a view to sustainable development.The present report reflects the main findings and assessments presented by each responsible partner for its own country obtained through extensive field and desk research with the aim to identify and assess practices, policies, gaps and needs of target groups and stakeholders, and forms the basis for the preparation of the Smart Farming Handbook that will be delivered further during the project implementation.

The Smart Farming represents the application of modern Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in agriculture.

Following the plant production and genetics revolution, the third Green Revolution is starting to enforced in the agricultural world based on the implementation of ICT solutions as the precision equipment, The Internet of Things (IoT), the sensors and the actuators, the geo-tracking systems, the Big Data, the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), the robotics etc.

The Smart Farming has a real potential to deliver more productive and sustainable agricultural production, based on a more accurate and efficient use of resources.

From the farmer's point of view, Smart Farming should provide the farmer with an added value in the form of better decision-making or more efficient operation and management of his farm.

The Smart Farming is closely linked to three interconnected Technology sectors:

• Management Information Systems: Programmed systems for the collection, processing, storage and dissemination of data in the form required for the execution of the tasks and functions of an agricultural enterprise.

• Precision Agriculture: Managing spatial and temporal variation to improve economic performance combined with reducing inputs and environmental impacts. Includes Decision Support Systems (DSS) for the entire management of farm in order to optimize the inputs while maintaining resources, which are characterized by the widespread use of geo-tracking systems (GPS, GNSS) , aerial photographs from UAVs and the latest generation of supernatural images provided by Sentinel satellites, resulting in spatial variability maps of various measurable variables (e.g. crop yield, soil characteristics / topography, organic matter, moisture levels, nitrogen levels, etc.).

• Agricultural Automation and Robotics: The process of applying robotics, automatic control and artificial intelligence techniques to all levels of agricultural production, including farmbots and farmdrones.

Smart Farming applications not only targeting to large, conventional farms, but could also act to stimulate other common or growing trends in farms, such as family farming (small or group farms, special farms and / or stock-farming, high quality or special varieties, etc.) and organic farming to promote agriculture as an industry that inspires respect and transparency for the European consumer, society and market consciousness. Smart Farming can also provide great benefits to the environment, for example, via more efficient use of water, or the optimization of agricultural practices.

Tuesday, February 4th,2020

Smart Farming 4.0 All partners are focusing on the following activities:

- Fostering and evolving the smart farming. The goal is to ensure that the trans-disciplinary approach of Smart Farming 4.0 All is fully implemented and that stakeholders (including, land managers, food producers, developers, industry, regulators, advisory services, authorities and experts) are actively involved throughout the project. This includes the development and application of a methodology in order to connect stakeholders to the project, to enable stakeholder learning, and valuation of services resulting from smart farming cultivations at the local as well as at the (sub-) national level;

- Innovation management is considered a relevant task by the Smart Farming 4.0 All consortium. To be able to guarantee that the innovation potential of the project results is identified and respective measures can be taken, the project coordination deals with innovation-related activities;

- Clear communication between the project and the stakeholders. This includes the establishment of a project website which includes an ongoing project blog to which all partners contribute reflecting on issues pertinent to the project and disseminating project findings as they emerge. The project website is supported by the appropriate use of social media and through an email newsletter;

- Identify ecological and legal issues arising from the use of smart farming cultivations, as well as facilitating legal procedures within the project ensuring ecological and legal sensitivity management throughout the project lifecycle;

- Risk management and contingency planning;

- Administrative, financial, technical and scientific coordination.

Smart Farming 4.0 All project draws heavily on the participation of stakeholders involved in acquiring and developing basic skills and key competences, improving the level of key competences and skills, with particular regard to their relevance for the labour market and their contribution to a cohesive society, in particular through increased opportunities for learning mobility and through strengthened cooperation between the world of education and training and the world of work.

The Smart Farming 4.0 All project has an ethical management. Each task includes quality control, assessment and review as an integral component of the work. Included in this is a strong focus on whether any ethical issues could arise. Any issues or questions that may arise in relation to ethics are reported to the co-ordinator for final decision.

The project mid-term and final project review report will contain a comprehensive account of the ethics management over the duration of the reporting period.

Tuesday, February 18th, 2020

The Smart Farming 4.0 All project is implemented by a multinational consortium of partners who come together to conduct research, training and dissemination of new farming techniques that are environmentally friendly and energy efficient, ideal for urban applications.

Smart Farming 4.0 All adopt a management structure based on concepts, developed and adopted in the ERASMUS+ KA202/VET-61/13.09.2019 multi beneficiaries grant agreement and Annexes to it. Smart Farming 4.0 All has used the Human Resources Development Center (National agency for Erasmus + for Bulgaria) model for the actual Partnership Agreements signed with all partners.

Smart Farming 4.0 All is a 24 month project that has been designed to maximize the education, training, coordinated and supportive activities that will advance the understanding of the opportunities and challenges of smart farming and to promote innovation, exchange of experience and know-how between different types of organisations involved in education, training and youth.

As Coordinator of the project the Via Pontica Foundation has overall responsibility for ensuring the success of the Smart Farming 4.0 All project from inception to completion. It covers activities that are necessary for the daily operation of the project. These encompass the following:

- Establishment of a practical project structure, and installation of the governance bodies – Steering Committee (SC), Activity Leaders (AL), etc.;

- Coordination and application of measures/procedures for quality control;

- Maintaining accurate consolidated records of costs, resources, and time;

- Accepts the partners’ project activity reports;

- Communicating with other projects and coordinating dissemination and presentations;

- Bears the ultimate responsibility for spending EU funds appropriately;

- Preparing and submitting to the HRDC the cost statements of all partners;

- Monitoring project progress with four reporting periods within the partnership and two reporting periods to the National Agency (HRDC) and four project meetings, occurring during the course of the project;

- Remaining in close contact with the HRDC through the Project Officer.

- Overall quality control of all deliverables and outputs including their timely delivery to the National Agency (HRDC) project officer;

- Ensuring full ethical compliance;

- Maintenance of proper communication with the Human Resource Development Centre (HRDC) regarding project progress and status;

- Support and facilitate communication and cooperation between consortium members through the establishment of a virtual meeting platform (Webex Meet);

- Support and facilitate communication and cooperation between consortium members through the establishment of a progress management platform (Trello);

- Support and facilitate communication and cooperation between consortium members through the establishment of a file sharing space (Dropbox)

The goals of the project is:

‣ Identification and creation of a set of the latest techniques for intelligent agriculture in five EU partner countries

‣ Sharing best practices applied in partner countries at regional, national and European level.

‣ Promoting sustainable agriculture by building strong partnerships between communities, professionals, stakeholders and entrepreneurs across the EU.

‣ Accelerate growth and innovation in the agriculture and aquaculture sectors in partner countries and the rest of the EU, looking forward to the future.

The expected results of the Smart Farming 4.0 All project are:

‣ Research and analysis in the field of Smart Farming (intelligent agriculture).

‣ Development of a Project Management Guide.

‣ Development and pilot implementation of an innovative VET curriculum (vocational education and training)

Tuesday, May 12th, 2020

Romania is at the 26^th position as per the DESI index 2020 and its GVA for 2019 is 4.5% (% of the total GVA).[1]

The first Aquaponics publication in Romania was created in September 2015, being launched by the Research - Development Institute for the Valorization and Marketing of Horticultural Products - HORTING, inside the Aqua-Rom project, co-financed by a grant from the Swiss state through the Swiss Contribution for the enlarged European Union.

The scientific publication addresses and provides the support of specialized knowledge to all those who want to implement aquaponics systems in Romania. Also in this magazine you can find practical information on how to design, build and operate different aquaponics systems or what are the costs and benefits of such technology, but also answers to various questions.

Aquaponics is an innovative and sustainable food production technology that is an alternative to traditional food production technologies, in the context of increasing urbanization, diminishing water resources, global warming and reducing energy consumption. The implementation of aquaponics technology in Romania is at the beginning of the road.

At national level, in 2016 the Aqua-Rom project was initiated. Implementation of aquaponics technology to improve the health of the population coordinated by the University of Zurich in Switzerland. Transilvania Forestry College is a partner in the Erasmus + project, Aquaponics 2016-1-NL01- KA202-023006, coordinator being Wellantcollege from the Netherlands.

Aquaponics is a sustainable way to get local products, to get 10 times more food per square meter, to contribute to the process of biological filtration of water and conservation of aquatic resources.

As the products obtained from aquaponics systems have similar qualities to organic products, but are not yet accredited, the Hortig National Center will initiate actions to integrate aquaponics products within the marketing chain and public catering structures.

In Romania, this system of producing organic food has been adopted by a small number of people. An example is the NGO Snagov Foundation, which initiated such a pilot project to see how effective an aquaponic system is.

[1] https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/food-farming-fisheries/farming/documents/agri-statistical-factsheet-ro_en.pdf - last accessed October 10^th 2020

Tuesday, June 24th, 2020

Innovation has to be driven by farmers in order to be able to respond to their needs and they have to be involved in the research processes from an early stage. This is crucial for the future of rural areas. Farmers never stop innovating. Every generation brings new technological and organisational improvements. Farmers generate innovative solutions themselves that often go unnoticed by public. There is a huge amount of hidden knowledge that needs to be revealed and efficiently used and more should be done here.

Collaboration is the key to making innovation happen. Collaboration is especially relevant when speaking about opportunities in digital agriculture where technologies need to be adapted to users' needs. This means giving farmers and agribusiness leaders the tools and confidence to reach out to new partners in the ICT and digital industry.

The European Commission wants to build “bridges” between agriculture and the ICT sector in order to better address the environmental challenges of farming. Information technologies could help farmers reduce the EU’s emissions of greenhouse gases, 10% of which come from agriculture.

Digital technologies in agriculture are a high priority of the European Union. Around € 100 million is set aside in the Horizon 2020 program for the period 2018-2020, which aims to stimulate the development and implementation of digital technologies in agriculture and rural areas, as well as to prepare them for the impact of the digital revolution.

The EU Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) and the EU Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) are both relevant for aquaponics, tackling the aquaculture and hydroponics components respectively (European Commission 2012, European Commission 2013). Policies on food safety, animal health and welfare, plant health, and the environment (waste and water) also apply[1].

Part of the CAP is the Rural Development Policy, also referred to as the second pillar of CAP, which focuses on increasing competitiveness and promoting innovation (Ragonnaud 2017)[2]. Each Member State has at least one rural development programme. Most countries have set goals to provide training, restructure and modernise existing farms, set up new farms and reduce emissions. Measures against excessive use of inorganic fertilisers were introduced in the CAP and environmental policies and are regulated through the EU’s Nitrates Directive (Directive 91/676/EEC 1991) and the Water Framework Directive (WDF). The goal of the WFD is to protect the ecological and chemical status of surface waters and quantitative status of groundwater bodies (European Union 2016).

The CAP so far does not include support for urban agriculture, and the Rural Development Policy is solely focused on rural areas (Curry et al. 2015). There are also no other existing policies specifically covering urban food production.

The CFP reform and the strategic guidelines for the sustainable development of EU aquaculture were issued by the Commission to assist EU countries and stakeholders to tackle challenges that the sector is facing. It emphasises on the sustainable development of the aquaculture sector and facilitates the implementation of the WFD in relation to sustainable aquaculture (European Commission, 2013).

The CFP requires the development of a Multiannual National Strategic Plan in each Member State to develop strategies to promote and develop the aquaculture sector (European Commission 2016).

agriculture, and the Rural Development Policy is solely focused on rural areas (Curry et al. 2015). There are also no other existing policies specifically covering urban food production.

The CFP reform and the strategic guidelines for the sustainable development of EU aquaculture were issued by the Commission to assist EU countries and stakeholders to tackle challenges that the sector is facing. It emphasises on the sustainable development of the aquaculture sector and facilitates the implementation of the WFD in relation to sustainable aquaculture (European Commission, 2013).

The CFP requires the development of a Multiannual National Strategic Plan in each Member State to develop strategies to promote and develop the aquaculture sector (European Commission 2016).

Environmental impacts of aquaculture are regulated under a range of EU legal requirements including water quality, biodiversity and pollution. Environmental policies relevant for aquaponic operators are the Strategy on the prevention and recycling of waste (European Commission 2011) and the 7th Environment Action Programme (EAP) under the EU Environmental Policy (European Union 2014).

None of these EU policies and guidelines so far explicitly mentions aquaponics. According to DG MARE, regulations on aquaponics need to be resolved within the individual Member States (COST Action FA1305 2017), e.g. involving action resulting from the respective National Strategic Plans.

One of the priorities in the strategy on aquaculture is to improve access to space and water (European Commission 2013). Competition among different stakeholders and often strict environmental rules limit the further development of open aquaculture systems inside the EU. Aquaponics systems can be located almost anywhere, including deserts, degraded soil and salty, sandy islands, since it is a closed-loop using a minimum of water. Therefore, it can utilise space that is not suitable for other food production systems, like rooftops, abandoned industrial sites and generally non-arable or contaminated land. Since aquaponics reuses 90-95% of the water, it relies much less on water availability compared to other systems like open aquaculture, hydroponics, and irrigation agriculture.

Larger commercial aquaponics systems have a high level of biosecurity and environmental conditions can be fully controlled ensuring a healthy environment for the fish, thus minimising the risk for diseases and parasite outbreaks.

Because of the higher control on production, losses are lower, which can provide aquaponic farmers with a competitive advantage over traditional farmers. On the other hand, using one nitrogen source to culture two products (Somerville et al. 2014), increases the investment risk as both fish and plant production must be maximised in order to make profit. However, if this is done successfully, combined with the positive view on more ecologically produced products in Western markets, high revenues can be achieved (Somerville et al. 2014).

The Seventh Framework Programme (under the Multiannual Financial Framework of the European Commission) funded a couple of projects related to aquaponics, the most relevant one called INAPRO (Innovative model and demonstration based water management for resource efficiency in integrated multitrophic agriculture and aquaculture systems) carried out by 17 partners from 7 countries. INAPRO aimed at improving current approaches to rural and urban aquaponics through the development of a model and the integration of innovative technologies to save water, energy and nutrients (http://www.inapro-project.eu). The EU Framework Programme Horizon 2020 (challenge 2 ‘Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine and maritime and inland water research, and the bioeconomy’ and challenge 5 ‘Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials), provides funding to several aquaponic initiatives, like EASY, CoolFarm and ECOFISH. Because of the innovative nature and the necessity to improve the available technologies, it is expected that funding for research will be made available by the Member States (Hovenaars et al., 2018).

The EU, through the Horizon 2020 programme, also supported the COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) Action FA1305 “The EU Aquaponics Hub: Realising Sustainable Integrated Fish and Vegetable Production for the EU” to promote innovation and capacity building by a network of researchers and commercial aquaponics companies. Several participants of the COST Action participated in a workshop in Brussels with DG MARE, DG AGRI and DG RTD in order to communicate the status quo of aquaponics in Europe and to explore avenues to support its development in order to fulfil its potential to become a significant part of a sustainable food production strategy for the EU. DG AGRI recognises that aquaponic production has numerous benefits and can be considered more sustainable than conventional agriculture. DG Mare works with the individual Member States to identify bottlenecks and implement regulations and will raise this issue at their next technical seminar (COST Action FA1305 2017).

Hydroponics and aquaponics are yet in the first experimental phase of its development and initiatives in these fields are created by private entities and enthusiasts. In terms of educating professionals, students and enthusiasts, the private sector is also the prominent source to deliver such trainings.

For Cyprus the following examples are present:

- “Cyprus Agro Industry Center” (2020) organise and carry out 1-day trainings that include theory and practice for those interested in learning about Hydroponics and Aquaponics.

- The Cyprus Agricultural Research Institute opened up the Hydroponics Education Centre in 2014, offering Vocational Education to agriculture professionals.

On academic level, no specific programmes have been found during our research.

In terms of consultancy, a small number of organisations offer consultancy services to those who are looking into developing their own systems. Consultancy services include general education about the subject, securing resources, system construction, maintenance and cultivation training.

Experts from the Institute of Agricultural Research Institute of Cyprus suggest that the most effective way to introduce and expand the concept of Aquaponics and Hydroponics in Cyprus is through Vocational Education (Neokleous 2014)^[3].

Smart farming in Turkey, producers (farmers), private sector (manufacturers, technology providers), public associations and cooperatives with the industry and represents a common area consisting of universities.

Producers, on smart farming; forecast of weather conditions and pest control with satellite and warning systems, decrease in labor and production costs, efficient use of agricultural inputs and resources, increase in product amount and yield thanks to technological equipment; They are in this concept in terms of production that attaches importance to nature and human health.

Technology firms, smart farming practices or technological applications in agriculture; They are the addressees of the issue in terms of using digital technologies in agricultural production stages, providing automation, digitalization and synchronization in the process from the field to the table, reducing costs, increasing efficiency and effectiveness.

Unions and cooperatives, on the other hand, use appropriate computer technology, drones, sensors and so on at every stage of smart farming applications from the production stage to the harvesting and processing technologies and the marketing process. They were involved in the process in the form of using information technologies such as

Public and universities, smart farming practices; Unlike traditional agriculture, they have guided their activities on managing the variability of nature, traceability, use of sensors, sustainability, quality management, cost estimation, preventive agriculture and efficient use of resources through big data analysis from planning in agricultural production to reaching the end user.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry takes important steps in implementing many technologies and informatics bases such as information technologies, decision support systems, technological agriculture applications, agricultural information systems, registration and database systems, both in their strategic plans and legislative arrangements, and in the fields of activity of the main service units. has recorded. In this framework, data analysis and reporting, which will be the basis for planning, can be made with databases created in all components of agricultural production.

Some smart farming projects implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Turkey are as follow:

a) Development of Domestic Automatic Tractor Steering and Control (OTAK) System Project:

b) Farm Management System Development Project

c) Precision Farming Applications Project Based on Image Processing with Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

d) Development of a System for Monitoring and Tracking Grain Losses in Wheat Harvest

e) Development of Smart Measurement Platform Prototype for Ovine Breeding

Practices defined as Smart Farming are closely monitored by the General Directorate of Agricultural Research and Policies, the Department of Soil and Water Resources Research and affiliated Institutes. Thus, it is aimed to increase the technology level of the country, thereby optimizing the agricultural inputs and increasing the profitability rate. It is also seen that all these studies are in line with the IPOL (Directore – General for Internal Policies / Policiy Department Structural and Cohesion Policies – Precision Farming) 2014-2020 Report.

General Directorate of Agricultural Studies and Policies is the biggest R&D institute of Turkey with its 195.535 da of land, 2.200 researchers, 6.235 employees, 48 Research Institutes, 21 Authorized Institutions and 1.200 projects.

[1] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323082393_EU_policies_New_opportunities_for_aquaponics

[2] Ragonnaud, G. 2017. “Second pillar of the CAP: Rural Development Policy.” Fact sheets on the European Union. European parliament.4p. Available online: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/atyourservice/en/displayFtu.html?ftuId=FTU_3.2.6.html

[3] NEOKLEOUS. D. (2014) ARI Hydroponics Training Centre Manual. Available from: http://news.ari.gov.cy/content/Ydrponia_Exeiridio.pdf [ last accessed October 15th 2020]

Tuesday, July 14th, 2020

The idea behind Bevine19 is to connect the world of technology with the world of wine culture so that people in the wine sector can have more information about what is happening in their plantations and make the most informed decisions possible. The idea is realized by placing sensors in the vineyards to extract meteorological data - temperature and humidity of air and soil, leaf moisture, rainfall, wind speed and direction. The data is processed and analyzed by the software part of our solution and visualized using our mobile application. This year we are at the stage of validation in 3 wineries, and the goal is to test as much as possible the model for diseases that we have developed so far and to improve it for the next season.

The Bulgarian technology company Ondo20 provides a system for automated control of drip irrigation, precise fertilization, climate control and monitoring for all crops. Through the system, farmers achieve up to 85% lower water costs as a result of precise management and control of water resources. Depending on the needs of farmers, Ondo can provide up to 50% lower energy costs, thanks to optimized consumption of electricity, diesel, gas and more. The platform is suitable for greenhouses, field crops, vineyards and orchards.

The Bulgarian company NIK21 has been supporting Bulgarian agriculture for over 18 years, providing solutions for precision agriculture in the field of agromanagement software and integrated agronomic services. The company also has its own academy, where it creates new staff in agriculture. The training center conducts theoretical and practical training to work with the latest technologies and equipment for precision agriculture.

As part of the Bulgarian examples in high-tech agriculture is the company ProDrone Sys22, which supports Bulgarian farmers by surveying the condition of agricultural soils by surveying with a drone. ProDrone Sys technology allows the survey of up to 2000 decares. With the help of their products and services in agriculture, not only time-accurate information on the condition of soils and crops is provided, but also a digital agronomic recommendation for: improving the chemical composition of the soil, protecting groundwater and eliminating human error. when performing field operations. The use of data from various sources in agronomic analyzes dramatically increases the productivity of agricultural production on large areas. In this way, the dynamic changes in the process of agricultural production will be reflected and worked off smoothly with the new generation of agricultural machinery.

The team of Sergey Petrov and Pollenity23 develops and assists Bulgarian beekeepers to extract data in near real time, turning hives into smart devices. Work on the idea began in 2015. Through their products, beekeepers can monitor parameters such as temperature and humidity, sending data to the cloud, as well as the frequency of vibration of bees. Beebot's algorithm analyzes and sends timely data, helping to give the necessary attention to the hive. One of the advantages of their devices is the need for a single battery that lasts between 6 and 8 months. Our sensor devices are entirely developed in Bulgaria and are used by customers and beekeepers on 5 continents. The company has launched the program "Aspen hive", connecting Bulgarian beekeepers and end customers looking for real quality honey. Their goal is to create a sustainable beekeeping sector in Bulgaria, ensuring fair pay for the work and efforts of beekeepers and at the same time offer quality products with guaranteed origin.

In recent years, we see examples of Bulgarian manufacturers that implement innovations worldwide in their production. Some such examples:

Agrotime, a leading producer and exporter of cherries to the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and others. The company's products are distributed in supermarkets such as Marks & Spencer and Waitrose. The company invests in a four-stream electronic line for sorting cherries with a capacity of up to 2 tons per hour. The cherries are packaged according to customer requirements, and the company also has refrigeration rooms and storage chambers in a modified atmosphere. The company is another example of Bulgarian examples in high-tech agriculture.

Another example - in a family farm in the village of Glufishevo 380 dairy cows are bred free-boxing and 10,000 decares of land are cultivated. To optimize the processes, farmers build a new animal barn and a building with a modern milking installation, as well as implement a management system that provides them with timely information about the entire herd. The milking parlor is also equipped with a selection door, which after milking can easily and quickly separate the cows for manipulations. It is also interesting that the farm uses a robot for feeding calves, as each calf has a built-in chip, it knows how much milk each animal must drink in a day and could monitor whether there is a calf that has not drunk its milk for the day.

There are also interesting projects with greenhouse vegetable producers. These are from the company "Agrostan", which develops a greenhouse for cucumbers in the village of Strazhitsa, and its plants are grown without soil, a method also known as hydroponic cultivation.

Another of our greenhouses of 6 decades in Sofia for the production of cucumbers has implemented equipment of the highest class - hydroponics, also uses a thermal screen, ventilators and a system for re-circulation of drainage water. In addition, the owner of the Sofia greenhouse has the ambition to use blockchain technology to monitor and easily guarantee the quality of the products. The data of the block chain will include information about what the plant feeds on, whether there are sprays, who picked it, on what date and additional information to be a quality certificate.

Tuesday, July 28th, 2020

In the Prefecture of Chalkidiki, there are two companies that apply methods of smart agriculture. The company Yanni’s Olive Grove in Nea Potidea, Chalkidiki and the Agricultural Association of Metaggitsi.

The company Yanni’s Olive Grove, is a family business that produces fresh oils and olive products with unique varieties Chondroelia, Agrielia and Galani of Chalkidiki. Its olive groves are in Nea Potidea, Chalkidiki and its facilities are in Nea Tenedo, Chalkidiki, in northern Greece. The high quality of the products is very essential for the company where its owners are very proud of its progress, whose green olive oil products have won 46 international awards to date. The company also belongs to the TOP 100 SOCIETIES OF THE WORLD list and its olive oils to the TOP EVOOS OF THE WOLRD list according to the WORLD RANKING EVOOS. Following the instructions of the International Olive Oil Council, the harvest is done only by hand and the olives are transported to the oil mill or the processing plant in a short time, after they have passed the first sorter. The extraction of fresh olive oil is done at low temperatures and its storage is done under constantly controlled conditions of zero oxygen. Bottling includes nitrogen packaging to ensure product quality. The basic philosophy of the company is the healthy Mediterranean diet, so its new products called YANNI'S OLIVE SNACK, which were recently placed on the market in North America, have a different approach from the one we are already accustomed to in terms of green and black olive in Chalkidiki .They harmoniously combine the salty, sour and sweet taste. They follow the ideal snacking for all hours of the day. They are completely natural, without any liquids, lactose and gluten, with low salinity, without the addition of extra sugar, except that contained in dried cranberries and black currants by nature. With high energy, low fat and the lifespan of snack products is 12 months. They are ideal for diabetics and people with heart problems and for any type of diet.

The basic belief of YANNI'S OLIVE GROVE, is the creation of foods based on green olives and olive oil from unripen olives (Agourelaio) with the highest possible quality, which is achieved through the continuous effort to upgrade the production process, close cooperation with the scientific community and finally confirmation through a series of certifications from official accredited bodies. The company YANNI’S OLIVE GROVE among its certifications, has the ability to produce the PDO AGOURElAIO OF CHALKIDIKI, which is the only Greek fresh olive oil certified as PDO in Greece today. Through ideal conditions of cultivation, harvesting and standardization, which are under the auspices of the KRINOS Olive Center of the American School of Agriculture, its olive groves participate, as a pilot crop, in a new pioneering for Greece and unique in Europe three-year program called intelligent agriculture (Gaiasense), organized by the team of the KRINOS olive center of the American School of Agricultural and in collaboration with the Greek national organization GAIA BUSINESS. The company, respecting the final consumer, believes that he needs to know, how the production was done and where the product it is coming from. For this reason, the company now has a QR CODE on the final package, so that the customer can only see the entire course of the product from field to shelf directly with just the LOT NUMBER. The varieties of YANNI’S OLIVE GROVE olive trees are genetically certified by the Ministry of Agriculture for their authenticity. At the same time, it implements special protocols for the protection of the environment through the recycling materials and the management of waste.

Its products have higher levels of polyphenols and natural antioxidants, than conventional Greek extra pure olive oil, and for this reason, YANNI'S OLIVE GROVE are the only sponsor of the first world study on people with mild mental disorders, which is the precursor of Alzheimer's disease. The results of the study will be published within the year 2020 release on the market of the study. Yanni’s Olive Grove is owned by Ms. Sofia Prodromou, BS in Chemistry and Oenology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and her husband, Ioannis Prodromou.

The Metaggitsi Cooperative of Chalkidiki has been active since 1901 in the part of the rural area. Wanting to meet the modern challenges faced by farmers and at the urging of the President of the Cooperative Vlavi N. Konstantinou in 2011, the agricultural land registry of the Agricultural Cooperative of Metaggitsi, Chalkidiki, is decided and implemented. Specifically for this project, the satellite images purchased from abroad were procured and corrected, and then a database was created, which is connected with a program and aims at the correct mapping of parcels and agricultural areas in digital form, offering spatial and descriptive information. With the completion of the cadastre of the area of Metaggitsi, another information system was created that is connected to the existing program where it is possible to record the results of the chemical analyzes of the product and the soil and leaves diagnostic analyzes (philodiagnosis) of the farm. Specifically, for each estate that is recorded, the results of the chemical analyze of the product it produces per year as well as the results of the soil and leaves diagnosis analyzes per year are recorded and can be announced to the producers. The purpose of this recording and information is to control the product per year and in the long run, to control the cultivation of the producers and to improve the production and the way of cultivation, through the results provided by this information, if evaluated.

In addition to the useful information for the producer, this method was also chosen to ensure the consumers, as a result for the PDO excellent pure olive oil Galano Metaggitsiou Chalkidiks, for having completely traceability of the product and also for the production coordinates of the product in ESGA87 . In the next steps of the Agricultural Association was the cooperation with the American School of Agriculture. The actions which were developed are: 1) the training of young farmers 2) transition to the digital age smart farming. The Association participates in the pilot project carried out in the context of the implementation of the Interregional platform HIGH TECH FARMING as a result of the scope expansion , so as to include olive growing in accordance with the decision was taken unanimously of the platform’s members during the 1st Technical Meeting which was at the American School of Agriculture on June 12th , 2019. Specifically, a meteorological station has been set up which can provide information through a software system to the producers about the conditions that prevail and will prevail in the area and to be informed about the cultivation works that can be carried out to the farm (e.g. in case of a rainfall they will be able to informed about when they can spray, etc.). In the context of the cooperation, a pilot program was developed to protect the olive groves from “enemies”, such as olive fruit fly with the use of olive fruit fly traps , which have the ability to locate the olive cultivation “enemies” , without the producer going to the farm. All this information is provided electronically, so the producers have the opportunity to make good use of their time and make less use of pesticide. We attach indicative photos from the equipment used by the members of the Cooperative.

Finally, in the short plans of the cooperative, is the development of software to inform producers about irrigation and the proper use of water to save it, since the area is now developing in irrigated crops. From September 2015 in the register of Products with Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), after the approval of the European Commission (Official Journal of the European Union L 252/1 _29.09.2015), the [Galano Metaggitsi Chalkidikis (PDO)] an extra pure olive oil, which is prepared in Metaggitsi of the Municipality of Sithonia and has special quality characteristics, which now give it added value.

In Greece, hydroponics has been developing only in recent years, mainly in greenhouses where vegetables and flowers are produced. According to the available data from the International Center for Research and Education for Sustainability IRTC, 1750 acres are cultivated in Greece by hydroponic methods and concern the cultivation of both vegetables and flowers. Specifically, 1450 acres are cultivated with vegetables and 300 with flowers. Given that the total cultivated area in Greece amounts to 36.600 acres (arable land crops, horticultural land and permanent crops), (EL.STAT., 2018), hydroponic crops cover about 5% of the cultivated areas. About 400 acres of these are cultivated in Northern Greece, 150 acres in Central Greece, 300 acres in Attica and the Islands, 450 acres in the Peloponnese, 100 acres in Western Greece and 350 acres in Crete.

As for the species of plants that are cultivated, the tomato is the pre-eminent vegetable of hydroponic cultivation, since it covers about half of the areas. 25% of the areas include cucumber crops, 10% of the areas include peppers, lettuce, zucchini and eggplants while 15% of the cultivated areas are covered with flowers (gerberas, carnations, chrysanthemums and gypsophila), (www.luciafarm.gr, 2018). A number of entrepreneurs have entered the field of hydroponics since 2006, several of whom coming from sectors "foreign" to food production, investing millions of euros. Most of the groups in this category are concentrated in Northern and Northeastern Greece. The ITA Group was the first to "see" the business opportunities through its subsidiary.

ITA Group "Piperies Dramas" The company has developed a modern and innovative project, a Glass Fence unit of 100 acres, for the heating of which, is used a built-in Fuel and Electricity Cogeneration Station with natural gas (ita-sa.gr). Many varieties of peppers are produced and exported to more than 10 European countries. State-of-the-art, automated aquaculture systems are used and aquaculture takes place in inactive substrate. The cost of the project is estimated at 19 million Euro.

Wonderplant -The company is located in Petrousa, Drama and produces & packages tomatoes that come from 329,000 tomatoes in 66,000 planting lines. For this purpose, it has 120 acres of glazed greenhouse (www.wonderplant.gr). The use of the hydroponic method allows the production for nine months a year, while saving significant amounts of water. The company utilizes the thermal energy and carbon dioxide emissions of the natural gas that uses as fuel. The investment of the company amounts to EUR 30 million.

Lucia farm- The investments of the Efthymiadis group (Lucia) Lucia Farm is located in Alexandria, Imathia. It cultivates tomatoes in a glass greenhouse of 100 acres with the method of hydroponics (www.luciafarm.gr). The cultivation takes place in inert fiberglass substrates. 500,000 plants are grown by this method and 5,200 tons of tomatoes are produced per year. In the greenhouse is used a cogeneration system of electricity and heating while the produced carbon dioxide is consumed by plants and does not pollute the environment. The produced electricity is used for the town’s needs.

Greenhouses of Thrace -This is a company that has 140 acres of modern greenhouses where, since 2013, vegetables are grown with methods of integrated management. The company uses geothermal energy to heat its facilities, while by the method of hydroponics, produces products in autonomous cultivation booths and rotates crops per season managing to have production all year round. It is worth noting that in Thrace and generally in Northern Greece, there are geothermal fields whose use helps to save energy. It is a renewable energy source whose use has replaced oil and contributes to environmental protection and sustainable development. The Greenhouses of Thrace operate entirely by exploiting the geothermal energy (www.thracegreenhouses.com).

The products produced by the company are various varieties of tomatoes and cucumber.

Selecta One is a German company that recently, in collaboration with two Greek companies, started the production of floriculture in Chrysoupoli Kavala. The company uses geothermal energy and has developed 35 acres of greenhouses where rooted cuttings of ornamental plants are produced are exported almost entirely to Italy - mainly - but also to other countries (www.selecta-one.com). The company uses state-of-the-art production methods and has already invested 7 million Euro.

The company Georgiki Anaptiksi AEE is located in the Peloponnese, in Filiatra, and has greenhouses of 45 acres where, since 2009, it produces tomatoes and cucumbers with the method of hydroponics on technical stone wool substrates. The annual production reaches 1,800 tons. The company also produces about 3 million seedlings of vegs and vegetables for outdoor and greenhouse crops per year while using modern, certified production methods (geoana.gr).

At the same time, in the Greek region, more and more remarkable small and medium units are being implemented lately, such as the greenhouses of AGAN in Messinia. This is a modern business founded in 2012 and located in Messini (Messinia) and has 43 acres of greenhouse tomato cultivation with the method of hydroponics. Stone wool substrates are used, while the pollination of the fruits is done with the use of bumblebees (Bombus terrestris), in a natural way. The company uses modern hydroponic systems, such as drip irrigation that is done automatically and allows the appropriate amounts of water to be taken from the plants. Also, water is recycled so that there is minimal consumption. Harvesting is done twice a week (www.greektomato.gr).

There is also the first hydroponic unit for strawberries near Manolada. This is a hydroponic strawberry cultivation system which is internationally innovative and has been awarded (gr.fraoulabest.com). This system is used by production units in Manolada, Rhodes, Pieria and Crete. Strawberries grow one meter above the ground while stone wool substrates are used and there is about a 30% saving in water use.

Businesses in Crete

In Crete, especially in Ierapetra but also in other areas, the cultivation of greenhouses is widespread. The climate of the area allows the low energy consumption but also the cultivation all year round. In recent years, hydroponic crops of vegetables and seedlings have been developed on the island with modern methods. Some worthwhile efforts are mentioned as examples.

Tampakis SA -The company is located in Ierapetra, Crete and has 50 acres of hydroponic vegetable crops (tomato, cucumber, pepper, eggplant) on substrates. Modern cultivation methods are used while the company has relevant certifications (www.tampakisveg.gr).

Hatzakis -The hydroponic unit of Mr. Hatzakis is located in Ierapetra, Crete and is one of the oldest, since it deals with hydroponic cultivation in stone wool since 1998 (www.agronews.gr).

Siamantouros SA This is a modern hydroponic installation in the prefecture of Heraklion that covers 25 acres of vegetables and flowers. In a closed circuit of hydroponics are grown mainly tomatoes where its effluents nutrient solution are reused saving significant amounts of water, which is very important for the island. The investment amounts to 1.5 million euros (www.agronews.gr).

AGRIS AE This is a seedling production unit in Ierapetra, Crete. The investment for the creation of the hydroponic facilities amounts to 1.7 million Euro.

In addition, in Samos we have the company " Ellinika Thermokipia SA" in which the tomaccini tomato snack is produced (s.s. olive type tomatoes in a package of 220 grams in a specially designed package). This is a pioneering idea that promotes the consumption of tomatoes as a snack. The company is located in Samos and produces tomatoes with the method of hydroponic cultivation promoting them as "the ideal snack" for children and adults (www.tomaccini.gr). This is a small-fruited, hydroponic tomato of the angel variety that is produced for the first time in Greece.

Tuesday, August 11th, 2020

Techniques Used

Substrate culture is common in the cultivation of fruit-consuming species (tomato, pepper, strawberry). Perlite, rock wool and coconut peat are used as substrate. Perlite is a local material, perlite reserves, more than half of the world is located in Turkey. Rock wool and coconut peat are imported. Among these environments, perlite and coconut peat do not have a waste problem, they can be used for landscaping and growing potted plants after being used in soilless agriculture.

Çukurova University Scientists Grow Soilless Lettuce in Aquaculture. (2017)

The hydroponic greenhouse that Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality established in cooperation with Yıldız Technical University in order to support national agriculture and increase agricultural production started to produce its first products. (2019)

The use of hydroponics in commercial production was started in Turkey in Antalya in 1995. Soilless agricultural activities, which were initially carried out on a total of 100 decares in two enterprises, have increased rapidly since 2004. As of 2016, it is estimated that the landless agricultural area in the country is around 12000 decares. Although it is applied in a very limited area (~ 2-3%) compared to the total greenhouse area, it is increasing rapidly. Although the first soilless farming enterprises in the country were established in Antalya, the center of greenhouse cultivation, greenhouse enterprises engaged in soilless agriculture turned to geothermal fields in the 2000s, since greenhouse air conditioning is essential to achieve high efficiency and quality, especially in species such as tomatoes and peppers. With these developments, the Aegean Region has become a center of attraction for these businesses. Apart from the Aegean Region, greenhouses heated with geothermal energy and soilless agriculture have been established in the Southeastern Anatolia Region and the Eastern Anatolia Region. Apart from geothermal energy in greenhouses where soilless agriculture is used, the main energy source is coal. In addition, although there are greenhouses heated with waste energy, the area is limited.

Aquaponics Unit was established within the scope of the project carried out by the Western Mediterranean Development Agency and the Rectorate of Akdeniz University. In the 250 square meter nylon greenhouse, 3 fish tanks (diameter 2.5m, depth 1m) each with a capacity of 5 tons of water and a two-storey plant production area with a total surface area of 60 square meters was created. (2016).

The education in aquaponics and hydroponics receives no special support from authorities and specialized organizations as FAO for example. No special course was designed besides the FAO technical paper issued in 2014 and called “Small scale aquaponics food production”15, as a part of Climate-smart agriculture sourcebook.

Tuesday, August 25th, 2020

The first Aquaponics publication in Romania was created in September 2015, being launched by the Research - Development Institute for the Valorization and Marketing of Horticultural Products - HORTING, inside the Aqua-Rom project, mentioned above. The scientific publication addresses and provides the support of specialized knowledge to all those who want to implement aquaponics systems in Romania. Also in this magazine you can find practical information on how to design, build and operate different aquaponics systems or what are the costs and benefits of such technology, but also answers to various questions. As the products obtained from aquaponics systems have similar qualities to organic products, but are not yet accredited, the Hortig National Center (Institute of Research and Development for Industrialization and Marketing of Horticultural Products) have the ambition and initiated actions to integrate aquaponics products within the marketing chain and public catering structures. Institute’s mission is to conduct the scientific research activities (basic and applied), innovation in the processing and storage of vegetables and fruits, vegetables culture in greenhouses and horticultural products marketing. Also, the institute develops the design technologies for processing, storage of horticultural products, production of crops in protected areas, technical assistance and installation projects for machinery and technical equipment, for investments in competence domain. All these activities are conducted in the context of Romania's policies within the horticulture’s field, harmonized with the European Union policies.

Horting’s activities have the following objectives: - Research and development of processes and culture technologies for aquaponics field; Technological transfer and technical assistance given to producers and processors from the horticultural field; - Research and development processes, preparation and storage technologies on long and short term of fresh vegetables and fruits; - Research and development processes and processing technologies of horticultural products (canned products, jams, juices and soft drinks, dehydrated and frozen products);

Research and development processes and technologies for obtaining the grafted seedlings of melons, eggplants, tomatoes, peppers and culture technologies of this in protected area and field; In Romania, systematic research in the field of aquaponic and hydroponics was approached by a consortium of I.C.D.I.M.P.H. Horting Bucharest, I.C.D.E.A.P.A Galati, Ecological Society Aquaterra and Kaviar House, coordinated as project manager by I.C.D.I.M.P.H. Horting, with the launch of the sectoral program for agriculture, in 2006. Within these researches, the first pilot station in Romania was built, located inside the research greenhouses from I.C.D.I.M.P.H. Horting Bucharest.

The first website http://aqua-ponics.ro/ was created, which aims to be a way to promote Romanian achievements in the field of aquaponics and, through the blog, a place where beginners, specialists, practitioners and theorists involved in this field to meet to exchange opinions, to present their achievements or to request and receive specialized consultancy.

Within the project "Implementation of aquaponics technology in Romania, to increase incomes and improve health in disadvantaged areas -" Aqua-Rom, a Guide for Aquaponist farmers from Romania was made, called "Aquaponics for beginners". This guide can be studied online by those interested in aquaponics and hydroponics at the following address: https://en.calameo.com/read/004572728f7ca21910b48

Also within the "Aqua-Rom" project, an e-learning platform was launched, which contains an aquaponics course for beginners consisting of 10 video-animated lessons, which can be found at the following address: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCTwYUonZI08CRy46mEwRTNUWPJORe 2E-

Achievements in Romania:

➢ Horting geodesic greenhouse-The geodetic form (hemisphere) is, from a constructive point of view, the lightest, most solid and cheapest structure that can be made. It covers large spaces without any interior support. It resists wind very well and does not reflect incident solar radiation. Having the smallest surface in contact with the external environment, compared to other geometric shapes that close the same volume, the heat losses, which are proportional to the heat transfer surface, are smaller. The geodetic form (hemisphere) is, from a constructive point of view, the lightest, most solid and cheapest structure that can be made. It covers large spaces without any interior support. It resists wind very well and does not reflect incident solar radiation.

At the Horting Institute, several small and medium capacity aquaponics systems have been developed for demonstration purposes.

Micro systems - For those who want to test the aquaponics method, several systems have been created that must be placed in well-lit areas of the house or in a “hobby” greenhouse. The capacity of these systems can vary from 2-3 liters of water up to 150 - 200 l. The systems can be populated with decorative or ‘edible’ fish. Given the lighting conditions in a house, it is recommended to grow plants whose light requirements are moderate. Three such systems were developed by engineer Cristian Bulbuc and presented at scientific events of ICDIMPH Horting.

The first aquaponics system in Romania is set at the Research and Development Station for Aquaculture and Aquatic Ecology in Iași Researchers from the Development Research Station for Aquaculture and Aquatic Ecology in Iași (SCDAEA) of Alexandru Ioan Cuza University have developed an aquaponics mini-system. It is of the floating shelf / floating shelves type and consists of a cork (shelf) made of PVC tubes and baskets filled with bioballs that have the role of supporting plant roots but also for the development of nitrifying bacteria communities.

The realization of an aquaponics system at the resort has a special importance both from a scientific point of view and as a didactic material, this being a component part of the research directions from SCDAEA. The resort is located in Iasi, on the Iasi-Ciurea Road km 5 and has in its composition a hall of 2200 m2, which includes two recirculation systems for fish farming and a flow-through breeding system, a breeding station and a station to make forages micro FNC consisting of mill, extruder and granulator. Also, the resort has 8 land basins with a total area of 5.9 ha. In the biobase of the resort there are breeders of local carp breeds (Podu Iloaiei, Frăsinet, Ineu). Three species of sturgeon are also raised and preserved: sterlet (Acipenser ruthenus), Russian sturgeon- Danube sturgeon (Acipenser gueldenstaedtii) and Great sturgeon (Huso huso). These species are important both economically and for biodiversity conservation because they are endangered species and are protected internationally by the CITES Convention. The resort also has a lot of Japanese carp (Cyprinus carpio var. Koi), which has an ornamental importance due to its special color. The resort carries out both research activities and an active collaboration with farmers and the most important association, ROMFISH, by producing redeveloped carp chickens but also scientific advisory services on feed and water quality.

Tuesday, September 08th, 2020

In August 2020, the company Aquaponic Consultants Cyprus finished the construction of a ‘state-of-the-art’ aquaponics installation. The installation is not fully operational yet. According to the owners, the troughs are only 30 cm so for now they are focused on testing the production capacity by starting to grow ‘’green vegetables for salads’’. The installation ecosystem includes the cultivation of fish such as Koi fish, Guppies, Tilapia fish, goldfish, crayfish and more.

The vast majority of Aquaponics and Hydroponics applications in Cyprus can be found in online forums and social media, posted by enthusiasts who experiment and apply those methods at home. A prime example of such backyard applications is presented on Youtube by user Invictus Oilaomon (2014):

1. First, the installation base is created using common wooden cargo trays.

2. Then the installation roof and sidewalls are constructed using wood and plastic waterproof cover.

3. The construction of wooden growbeds.

4. Creation of an overflow return system using materials found at all DIY shops.

5. Growbeds are filled with river stones.

6. A fish tank is placed on top of the sump tank. Chemical analysis of the water should be carried out daily.

7. A control unit is installed, for controlling all electronics using solar energy exclusively.

8. The first plants are growing, in this case the owner planted avocado and bean plants.

An online seminar on May 12, 2020, which includes useful information, videos and all we need to know about Hydroponics in Cyprus was held. The agenda:

• Commencement and development of Hydroponics

• Advantages and Disadvantages

• Production of Microleaves and sprouts

• Their use in the chef’s world