The Digital solutions best suited to Greek farmers

Greek farmers themselves have the opportunity to test different digital technologies under real farming conditions, to find those that best meet their needs. This opportunity is provided by a European project – in which Greece is participating through ELGO-DIMITRA – which will be completed at the end of 2025. More specifically, the project evaluates and promotes the use of already existing digital tools based on the principles of agroecology. The lack of information on existing technology solutions adapted to specific needs, insufficient knowledge about their use and investment cost, and uncertainty about performance under real production conditions are factors that sometimes deter farmers from using new technologies. For this reason, the project does not aim to develop new tools, as there are already plenty available, but rather to collaborate with producers and provide comprehensive proposals regarding the best available tools that may potentially fit the needs of farmers following the principles of agroecology. Through participatory processes, farmers highlight which digital solutions best suit their needs, playing a key role in knowledge transfer and developing solutions to the problems they face. To support the active participation of farmers in selecting the appropriate technology, six demonstration farms were created across Europe. These were chosen to represent the diversity of European farming systems and to test the available tools and applications. This enables first-hand analysis of all the aspects of potential utility and application of digital technologies in agroecology, including users’ specific needs and the challenges they face.