SMART OLIVE FARMING IN CRETE

 Technology has come so far, during the last century, from chunky early computers to the sleek devices of today.  Then there is artificial intelligence and Internet of Things (IOT) that are, apparently, the "interconnectivity of all our devices fuelled by an increasingly powerful system".

In Crete, olive farming is big business and an important part of the economy of Greece's largest and most populous island.  There are 30 million olive trees in Crete so the potential effects of smart farming are very important. Agriculture, including olive farming, currently consume  85% of Crete's fresh water supply, so the idea of using smart technology is to substantially cut any waste.

Ioannis Daliakopoulos who is a research engineer at Crete's Hellenic Mediterranean University, says that the use of technology in this project involves constantly monitoring the soil condition.

"On the ground, we have installed a sensor that measures soil moisture, electrical conductivity, how salty the water is and the temperature of the soil, every 15 minutes. This information is transmitted to the central base and then to the cloud, where it is processed and we can estimate the perfect amount of water that needs to be used for irrigation.  The farmer can then access the data, remotely, and control the watering at the touch of a button.."

Thrassyvoulos Manios, Vice-Rector of the Hellenic Mediterranean University says that the use of technology will save massive amounts of water.  "Farmers, as well as scientists and researchers should get to know what the Internet of Things is exactly and what can be done through this new tool. We can do the same thing with chemical fertilisation and pesticides therefore with soil and plant protection.  All this helps the environment and boosts traceability of products, also, so that consumers can get more information on how foods are produced". 

Giannis Generatakis, an owner of an olive farm, whose family have had the farm at Archanes for the last three centuries believes the new technology will be very helpful.   "In recent years we have been facing some difficulties with climate change.  Technology always helps us and, then. the problems that we are, now, facing will be solved."

An Athens-based company, "Future Intelligence ", provides technology for the research on Crete.  Harris Moysiades, a business architect with Future Intelligence, says that benefit of the technology will go far beyond farming.  A lot of data will come from different devices, from the transportation part, the retailers and the agri-food producers.

"And, now imagine that artificial intelligence is an umbrella, under which, all these data processing will be done.  So this will optimise the whole water chain", Moysiades said.