On Friday October 25th, the 6th edition of the PanHellenic Congress on the Development of Greek Agriculture, organized ny GAIA EPICHEIREIN, took place in Athens (Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, Syggrou Avenue 364, 17674 Kallithea) under the theme: “Innovation for sustainable agri-food systems: the present and future of the CAP”.

European and Greek farmers must increase their efforts to reduce the environmental and climatic impact of their activity, while remaining productive and competitive and ensuring the provision of adequate, quality and safe food to EU consumers. At the same time, maintaining the agricultural activity contributes to keeping EU’s rural areas alive and enhancing their growth potential, while abandoning production would have a negative impact not only from a socio-economic but also from an environmental perspective.

The challenge that the European and Greek primary and agri-food sectors are facing today is to reduce misconceptions and to balance tensions between the economic, environmental and social dimensions of sustainability, by turning tensions into synergies.

Innovation and, in a broader sense, knowledge-based approaches are recognized as a way to achieve this, the digital transformation of agriculture being the most dynamic expression of the reconciliation and balancing of the economic, environmental and social aspects of the agricultural activity. It is no coincidence that digitization is a transversal goal that goes hand in hand with the general and specific objectives of the future CAP.

The 6th Panhellenic Congress aims to examine the challenge of sustainability for the agri-food sector from the perspective of innovation and to highlight current and future policies, with a particular emphasis on the Common Agricultural Policy, as well as innovative solutions across the EU that help to balance the three dimensions of sustainability: economic, environmental and social.

Agricultural cooperatives and collective farmers’ schemes of the primary sectorare catalysts in the process of transforming Greek agriculture towards sustainability, as well as dynamic multipliers of knowledge and innovation-based approaches. Enhancing and developing cooperation in the direction of knowledge and innovation is a national challenge for the country’s primary sector and can guarantee the successful planning and implementation of the future CAP.

The PanHellenic Congress on the Development of Greek Agriculture is a reference point in the Greek agri-food sector. Each year, more than 700 representatives of the farming community, the academic & research community, regional, national and EU authorities as well as major stakeholders across the agri-food chain in Greece and the EU, gather together in order to share their vision on Greek and EU agriculture and exchange views on trends and policies affecting them.

For any questions or information you can e-mail marketing@c-gaia.gr or call 2130 187 300