AgroSense is designed in six work packages (WPs) over 24 months. Wanting to achieve the broad objectives of the project, the proposed methodology involves a coordinated integration of a wide range of multidisciplinary and collaborative activities.
WP1 (Coordination and Management) will provide the framework for the efficient implementation of the project. A straightforward but effective and robust management structure will be established to enhance cooperation in the team and ensure that all the project objectives are met, and all administrative, financial, and technical tasks conform to regulations. WP1 will also deal with stakeholders’ engagement in the participatory approaches. It will also follow the progress and the impact of the project to apply in time any required adaptations and improvements.
In parallel, WP6 will include strategic and targeted measures to maximize the impact and enable the pathway of transition to digital and sustainable agriculture through well-selected dissemination and communication activities. Considering the size of the project, a more solid and simple structure with a set of specific and effective actions was selected.
The core of the methodology is the development of the precision agriculture system (Main Objective). This work will be carried out in WP2 and will focus on the study and assessment of remote and proximal data sources and techniques that will be utilized to provide input data for AgroSense. It includes as main tasks (i)the remote and proximal integrated monitoring of the selected crops; (ii) the development of algorithms and a platform for the manipulation of the multisource data; (iii) providing timely maps at subplot scale about the nutrient and water requirements of crops and yield.
WP4 will focus on the implementation and evaluation of Crop-Water-Soil-Agrochemicals on-farm. The inputs management will be tested in the second year of the project using different treatments and practices to implement real-time and variable rate application of granular fertilizers, water amounts and agrochemicals in order to reduce fertilizer inputs, increase crop yields and improve the environmental performance of cropping systems.
WP3 is related to the pilot sites that will be used and concerns one Perennial (Vineyard) and two Annual Crops (Cotton and Cereals) in the organized experimental sites of the Agricultural University of Athens in the Farm of Spata in Attica Prefecture (https://aua-gnosis.gr/spata-farm/) and the Farm of Kopaida in Boeotia Prefecture.AgroSense will use also input data from several ongoing projects in these farms.
WP5 will aim to upscale the findings derived from the experimental sites from the local to regional level using mainly satellite data and broader inputs from meteorological, hydrological and soil geospatial data.
