On Wednesday May 4, 2022, the meeting titled “Supporting Climate-Smart Agriculture through Innovative Networking Tools”, as part of the European project “AGREEN Cross-Border Alliance for Climate-Smart and Green Agriculture in the Black Sea Basin”, took place in the Noesis Science Center & Technology Museum. The meeting, which was organized by Anatoliki S.A. | Organization for Local Development in collaboration with the Agricultural Cooperative of Vassilika, was met with success.
The opening speeches of the meeting were made by Thanassis Sarakinos, on behalf of the mayor of Thermi Municipality and Iakovos Sariyannis, General Director of Anatoliki. S.A.
The main objective of the meeting was to present the innovative networking tools for the support of climate-smart agriculture and its products. The speakers’ speeches were targeted towards this direction.
Anastasia Rizopoulou, Mcs in Agronomy, staff of Anatoliki S.A. presented the AGREEN project, including a brief analysis on the issues based on climate change that are related to agriculture. She also referred to the online platform that has been developed during the project, its tools, the training programs in progress and the next steps.
Aristotelis Tagarakis, PhD – researcher in CERTH Research Centre took the stand presenting the ongoing research projects on presicion agriculture and the ways in which the developing innovative tools help tackle and adapt to climate change.
His speech was followed by Thanassis Patenidis, PhD, and Notis Argyriou, PhD and collaborating member of the board of directors of CERTH, who presented the Digital Innovation Hub in agricultural-food sector and the rice value chain, a pilot action of the Prefecture of Central Macedonia as part of the INTERREG EUROPE RUMORE programme.
The speakers made a reference to the rice tracking platform through the blockchain technology scheduled to start working soon, ready for use by the rice producers in Chalastra region. After scanning a QR code the consumer will have all information available about the product aka rice they are interested in buying (production, storage, packaging, trading).
The first part of the meeting concluded after a Q&A session.
In the second part, Theodoros Papadopoulos, head of the Central Fruit&Vegetable Market of Thessaloniki, introduced the actions of the market taken against wasting food products (fruit and veggies) which results in reducing organic waste, mentioning the developed digital platform that allows stakeholders such as charity associations to collect extra unsold food product quantities for further use.
The following speech, given by Vickie Krystallidou, PhD in Agronomy and animal specialist, staff of American Farm School, was about the activities of the School around IT technology as a tool for calculating the footprint in agrifood sector, i.e. the activity INOFA – Internet of Food Alliance. In this framework, several digital transformation technologies in agriculture and livestock have been implemented as to climate-smart agriculture, tracking and calculation of carbon footprint.
During the meeting, farmers from Metaxochori village by the town of Kilkis and livestock breeders from Echinos village by the city of Xanthi made an online appearance, referring to their experiences having participated in INOFA network and implemented the mentioned digital tools in their crops and livestock.
The meeting was moderated by Vasso Papadopoulou, Msc Chemical Engineer, Director of Programming and Sustainable Development in Anatoliki S.A., who also distributed an online questionnaire to be filled in by all participants.
In the meeting assisted, among others, ANETH | Organization for Local Development, OECON Consultants Group, researchers, agronomists, businessmen, students and consumers.
