D4.3 Greece National Stakeholder Meeting Report

Transcript

1 D4.3 Greece National Stakeholder Meeting Report This project is funded by the European Union The sole responsibility of this publication lies with the authors. The European Union is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

2 D4.3 Greece National Stakeholder Meeting This project was funded by the FP7 Program of the EU under Grant Agreement Number Project Deliverable 4.3 Authors: Athanasios Balafoutis, Demetres Briassoulis, Panos Panagakis Agricultural University of Athens 2013 AGREE

3 Contents 1. General Information Date and Place Organising Team Program Part I Part II Part III Part IV... 9 Annex I Annex II Annex III Annex IV Annex V List of Tables Figure 1: Participants in the Greek national stakeholders meeting in AUA... 5 Figure 2: Keywords on agriculture of 2040 received from the participating stakeholders... 6 Figure 3: Bottlenecks/opportunities to achieve energy efficient agriculture... 7 List of Figures Table 1: List of Participants Table 2: List of Keywords to express the situation of an energy efficient agriculture in Table 3: List of opportunities in the effort to achieve an energy efficient agriculture Table 4: List of bottlenecks in the effort to achieve an energy efficient agriculture... 18

4 1. General Information 1.1. Date and Place Date: 13 February, 2013 Venue: Agricultural University of Athens (AUA), Iera Odos 75, 11855, Athens, Greece 1.2. Organising Team Prof. Demetres Briasoulis Ass. Prof. Panagiotis Panagakis Dr. Athanasios Balafoutis Mr. Dimitrios Giannopoulos 2. Program 9:00 9:30: Registration coffee/tea 2.1. Part I 9:30-10:00: Presentation of the AGREE project Moderator: Prof. Demetres Briassoulis Welcome of participants (Prof. Briassoulis) Introduction in the AGREE project (Prof. Briassoulis) General information on AGREE project and overview of its results based on the AGREE reports (State of the Art and Energy Savings Measures list) were presented. Presentation of the meeting goals (Prof. Briassoulis) 1) Explore the long-term views (including the R&D point of view) on energy efficiency in agriculture of the participating stakeholders. 2) Synthesize the views in groups and make the first step towards establishing a national coalition of actors which can promote national policies on energy efficiency in agriculture.

5 Figure 1: Participants in the Greek national stakeholders meeting in AUA Self-presentation of participants There were 25 invitations sent to potential stakeholders (see Annex I for the invitation in Greek). 18 persons (15 stakeholders and 3 AGREE team members) took part at the meeting (list of participants attached in Annex II). The participants represented a broad spectrum of sectors: Government (representatives of two directories of the Greek Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) (3) Farmer s cooperatives (2) Agricultural Business Consultants (1) Farmers (4) greenhouses (2) arable farming, olive groves, sheep production (1), vineyards (1) Research institutions (1) Enterprises (2) NGOs (1) Specific press (1) AGREE team (3) 2.2. Part II 10:15 11:00: Discussion on energy efficiency in agriculture in the long-term perspective (2040) Moderator: Prof. Demetres Briassoulis Facilitator: Dr. Thanos Balafoutis Vision of the stakeholders in terms of energy efficiency in future agriculture

6 A PowerPoint presentation was used to start the procedure and have the opinion of the stakeholders. The facilitator asked the question: Imagine that in 2040, Agriculture is energy efficient. How does it look like?. He gave the participants 5 minutes to work on couples and get back to him with 3 keywords per couple. Figure 2: Keywords on agriculture of 2040 received from the participating stakeholders Each couple gave 3 keywords, which were written at the flip over chart. Finally, the list of keywords representing each stakeholder s view of the future agriculture in EU was established (Annex III). Having the list pined on the wall, an analysis of main keywords was executed from the moderator and the facilitator together with the stakeholders. 1) Precision farming was mentioned from 4 couples, showing the importance of sustainable and rational use of inputs in the future agricultural systems. It was mentioned though that farms in Greece are extremely small (average 4.2 ha) for applying precision farming technologies. 2) Renewable Energy Sources (RES) development within the farms was mentioned from 3 couples, showing the potential that RES have to be included in the sources that provide energy to the farms. 3) Farm energy autonomy (2 participating stakeholders couples) and energy reuse (also 2 stakeholders couples) were given as concrete actions for the future agriculture. It was mentioned during the analysis that these two keywords are very closely related and could be given under a common title such as energy autonomy will be based on energy recycling of agricultural by-products. It was also noticed that RES is also very closely related to the above 2 keywords and together show that the stakeholders envisage energy self-sustained agricultural systems producing various commodities. 4) Stakeholders would like to see future farming using high quality agricultural equipment (increased work efficiency through technological applications)

7 5) Lifelong learning was mentioned by 2 couples, however when it was written on the flip-over board most of the participants agreed that farmers lifelong learning will be a pillar for an energy efficient agriculture in ) Ecological aspects were also given by the participants, showing their interest in a sustainable and eco-respective future agriculture Part III 11:15 12:15: Discussion on bottlenecks and opportunities to implement energy efficiency in future agriculture Moderator: Prof. Demetres Briassoulis Facilitator: Dr. Thanos Balafoutis Bottlenecks and opportunities to achieve energy efficient agriculture The presentation continued with the question raised by the facilitator: What hinders/stimulates an energy efficient agriculture?. He gave the participants 3 minutes to work individually and get back to him with as many opportunities and bottlenecks they could. Figure 3: Bottlenecks/opportunities to achieve energy efficient agriculture The procedure started with the facilitator attempting to combine similar bottlenecks given by the stakeholders. The ultimate goal was to get at least 25 bottlenecks and 25 opportunities, using the method of pressure cooker, meaning pressing the participants to do so in a short time. The participants responded very well to the procedure and ended up with 27 opportunities and 36 bottlenecks (see Annex IV and V for the total list of opportunities and bottlenecks, respectively). The first remark by only looking at the numbers of opportunities and bottlenecks is that Greek stakeholders find a lot of barriers in their attempt to implement innovative techniques and energy efficient methods of production in agriculture,, but at the same time see a lot of opportunities to realize such techniques in the near future.

8 Opportunities: The most important opportunities sorted out in the final list are the ones below: 1) Economic crisis 2) Technology development and use 3) Internet blogs information access 4) Environmental awareness (producer consumer) 5) EU policies in favor to environment These results positively surprised the stakeholders as the economic crisis was considered by the majority as an opportunity to improve the agricultural production in Greece focusing in energy efficiency. It was commented that the economic crisis can potentially promote new ideas, given that the business methods in use up-to-date were proven incompetent in promoting an energy efficient agriculture. The stakeholders commented that it is inevitable to improve agricultural practices based on energy efficiency and sustainability and produce high quality products. Exploitation of high technology and internet development were also reflected as significant energy efficiency opportunities in Greek agriculture. This was mainly based on the fact that farming in Greece is based on traditional practices and agricultural business is mainly run by intermediates which take advantage of farmers. If farmers (or cooperatives of farmers) were using high technology in the production (i.e. lower inputs, better energy and labor efficiency, improved product quality) and internet to follow product pricing and market demand (improve final income of the farm), then energy efficiency measures would be applied easier and faster. Finally, environmental awareness and policies in favor of environment could become great opportunities for energy efficiency measures to be applied, since environmental protection during agricultural production is directly connected to energy inputs. Bottlenecks: The most important ones (mentioned by a number of participants) were: 1) Lack of efficient central planning 2) Lack of cooperation 3) Lack of information availability 4) Economic crisis 5) Bureaucracy It is worth noticing that three of the five (efficient central planning, economic crisis, bureaucracy) are directly connected to the main government. According to the stakeholders opinion all three significantly hinder the attempts of the agricultural business community (i.e. farmers, cooperatives, enterprises, investors) to introduce a new model of agriculture, including energy efficiency measures. Lack of cooperation was mentioned as a significant bottleneck from 9 stakeholders, showing that Greek agriculture is based on private businesses not being interested for the benefit of all and thus resulting in a negative effect on the total agricultural economy. Throughout the discussion it was pointed out that Greek agriculture could provide EU and world market with high quality unique products. Unfortunately, this is not a priority for farmers as they do not cooperate to run business and

9 establish marketing plans for such products that would strengthen Greek agriculture presence in the market as high quality/high price product provider Part IV 12:30 13:00: Prioritization of bottlenecks and opportunities to implement energy efficiency in future agriculture Moderator: Prof. Demetres Briassoulis Facilitator: Dr. Thanos Balafoutis The facilitator continued with the petition: Please give priority to the most important opportunities and bottlenecks from the available list. The stakeholders were given 10 stickers and they were asked to use 5 (green color) for prioritizing the opportunities and 5 (red color) for prioritizing the bottlenecks. All stakeholders used their 10 stickers and the final results were differentiated from the results shown in Part III. The reason was that in Part III, the stakeholders were brainstorming and the result of that was the keywords given for both opportunities and bottlenecks, whereas in Part IV they had in front of them the result of brainstorming of all participants and they could select as priority a keyword that had not think before Prioritization of opportunities The most important priorities set were: 1) Economic crisis 2) Internet blogs information access 3) Cooperation 4) Technology development and use 5) Products with protected name of origin 6) Climate change It is obvious that the economic crisis was kept on the first place of priority as the most important opportunity a fact that shows that stakeholders of agriculture in Greece have identified that there is a need to change if we want to achieve an energy efficient agriculture in the future. The same counts for the internet and the easiness in information access. However, cooperation was prioritized by many stakeholders (even if at first it was not mentioned by many of the them in Part II), showing that most of the participants see the opportunity of altering the way agricultural business is run in Greece (from individual to groups of farmers or cooperative). Cooperation is also important between farmers and the research community in solving problems related to item number 4: technology development and use. This brings forward to need to support research in the field of energy efficiency in Agriculture. Another remark would be that products of protected name of origin were set as a significant opportunity. This is within the global idea during the meeting that only high quality, unique products could boost agricultural production and promote energy efficiency measures in the production line of such products (increased income allows investment in new practices and equipment).

10 Prioritization of bottlenecks The most important priorities set were: 1) Lack of efficient central planning 2) Lack of cooperation 3) Small, fragmented farming land farm size economy of scale 4) Lack of consulting services 5) Cost of equipment Lack of efficient central planning remained in first place of priority among bottlenecks, showing that all stakeholders wait from the general government to use certain politics that will promote energy efficiency in agriculture. It should be pointed out that this priority was set by the stakeholders with the comment that it is not required to be combined with economic help from the government, but mainly using legislative and management methods. Cooperation was again set as important priority; with the stakeholders commenting that it might solve most of the problems faced at the moment to achieve energy efficient agriculture. In particular, if cooperation was to be applied widely in Greek agriculture, the stakeholders believed that it could solve many of the bottlenecks given in Annex V. Another important result was that Greek farms are very small in size, making energy efficiency measures difficult to be applied mainly for economic (economy of scale), but also for technical reasons (e.g. many fragments of land, unshaped fragments, etc). Lack of consulting services is a cumulative result of the public and private sector in Greek agriculture. Extension service offices of the Ministry of Rural Affairs and Food are weakened and they cannot offer consulting services for some years now. Meanwhile, the private sector has taken over consultation, which in many cases is not in line with energy efficient methods, but with sales of particular products. It was mentioned that the best solution in the route to energy efficient agriculture would be a smooth cooperation between the two sectors, with an active participation of the Universities. The last should offer improved educational programs to provide both sectors with skilled scientists, connection to the real needs of the public policy and the market requirements, and research targeting solution of problems that hinder energy efficiency. 13:00-14:00: Lunch

11 Annex I Ενεργειακή Αποδοτικότητα στη Γεωργία Energy Efficiency in Agriculture - AGREE ΠΡΟΣΚΛΗΣΗ Το Γεωπονικό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών σας προσκαλεί σε συνάντηση εργασίας συζήτηση που θα πραγματοποιηθεί στο πλαίσιο του ευρωπαϊκού προγράμματος AGREE στην αίθουσα πολλαπλών χρήσεων του Γεωπονικού Πανεπιστημίου Αθηνών. Το πρόγραμμα AGREE 1 ( στοχεύει στην προώθηση σε Ευρωπαϊκό επίπεδο μέτρων βελτίωσης της ενεργειακής αποδοτικότητας στον τομέα της γεωργίας, η οποία μέχρι σήμερα δεν έχει τύχει της δέουσας προσοχής, εκτός από τον τομέα των θερμοκηπιακών καλλιεργειών. Είναι γεγονός ότι η χρήση ενέργειας στην γεωργία είναι παραμελημένο αντικείμενο έρευνας και ειδικά η έμμεση χρήση ενέργειας, η οποία συνήθως δεν λαμβάνεται υπόψη σε αναλύσεις γεωργικών εφαρμογών. Το πρόγραμμα AGREE έχει ως στόχο να αναδείξει το δυναμικό αύξησης της ενεργειακής αποδοτικότητας σε βραχυχρόνιο στάδιο, αλλά και το αντίστοιχο δυναμικό σε μακροπρόθεσμη βάση. Οι περιβαλλοντικές επιπτώσεις από την ελάττωση της χρήσης της άμεσης και της έμμεσης ενέργειας στη γεωργία θεωρούνται αναπόσπαστο κομμάτι, αφού πιθανή αύξηση της ενεργειακής αποδοτικότητας συνεπάγεται επίσης μείωση των εκπομπών αερίων του θερμοκηπίου. Επειδή η εξοικονόμηση ενέργειας στη γεωργία εξαρτάται σε μεγάλο βαθμό από το αγρο-περιβάλλον (κλίμα) και τη δομή της γεωργικής παραγωγής στο πρόγραμμα συμμετέχουν εταίροι που μεταφέρουν τεχνογνωσία αγρο-παραγωγικών συστημάτων της Ν.Α., Ν.Δ., Β.Α. και Β.Δ. Ευρώπης. Τα στοιχεία από το δυναμικό εξοικονόμησης ενέργειας και τις αντίστοιχες περιβαλλοντικές και οικονομικές επιπτώσεις σε επίπεδο κάθε χώρας παρουσιάζονται συγκριτικά σε Ευρωπαϊκό επίπεδο για να προσδιοριστεί μια ατζέντα για τη διακρατική συνεργασία σε σχέση με την διάδοση της γνώσης όσον αφορά την αποδοτική χρήση της ενέργειας στη γεωργία. Το πρόγραμμα βασίζεται στη συμμετοχική διαδικασία μέσω οργάνωσης συναντήσεων εργασίας σε εθνικό επίπεδο με τη συμμετοχή ενδιαφερόμενων φορέων (stakeholders). Οι φορείς που προσκαλούνται θα κληθούν να συμμετάσχουν στη διαμόρφωση της τελικής ημερήσιας διάταξης, η οποία θα εστιάζει στην αξιοποίηση των αποτελεσμάτων της συζήτησης σε εθνικό επίπεδο. Ο στόχος είναι να συμπεριληφθούν οι γνώμες και οι απόψεις των ενδιαφερόμενων φορέων έτσι ώστε να καταγραφούν οι ανάγκες και οι ευκαιρίες από την εφαρμογή συγκεκριμένων προτεινόμενων μέτρων εξοικονόμησης ενέργειας στην Ελληνική γεωργία. Μια από τις μεθόδους διασφάλισης της εφαρμογής των μέτρων εξοικονόμησης ενέργειας στη γεωργία είναι η σύνδεση με ένα ευρωπαϊκό δίκτυο ερευνητών (European Network for Advanced ing in Agriculture and Environment - ENGAGE) που δεσμεύεται να προωθήσει τις προτάσεις των συναντήσεων στα κράτη που συμμετέχουν στο AGREE. Το δίκτυο αυτό είναι στενά συνδεδεμένο με την Ευρωπαϊκή Εταιρεία Γεωργικών Μηχανικών (EuAgEng). Αυτή η σύνδεση θα διευκολύνει τη διαδικασία υιοθέτησης των αποτελεσμάτων του προγράμματος από την ευρωπαϊκή επιτροπή. Επίσης, για να εξασφαλιστεί ότι τα αποτελέσματα του AGREE θα προωθήσουν προγράμματα Ε&ΤΑ που σχετίζονται με την ενέργεια στη γεωργία, έχει αναπτυχθεί μια στενή σχέση συνεργασίας με την 1 Ο κεντρικός στόχος του προγράμματος AGREE, είναι να θέσει στην ημερήσια διάταξη της έρευνας την ενεργειακή αποδοτικότητα στον τομέα της γεωργίας με βάση τις βραχυπρόθεσμες και μακροπρόθεσμες δυνατότητές της λαμβάνοντας υπόψη τις σχετικές οικονομικές και οικολογικές επιπτώσεις. Το έργο υποστηρίζεται από την Ευρωπαϊκή Επιτροπή, μέσω του εβδόμου πλαισίου στήριξης (FP7-KBBE ).

12 ομάδα εργασίας για τη γεωργία και την ενέργεια της Ε.Ε.. Αυτή η ομάδα είναι ενσωματωμένη στο Standing Committee on Agricultural Research (SCAR) και το Knowledge Based Bio-Economy Network (KBBE-Net). Οι δράσεις αυτές διάχυσης των αποτελεσμάτων του AGREE σκοπεύουν να προωθήσουν ερευνητικά προγράμματα που θα φέρουν την ενεργειακή αποδοτικότητα στη γεωργία στο προσκήνιο της Ε&ΤΑ στην Ευρώπη. Η συνάντηση-συζήτηση θα περιλαμβάνει 9:30 10:00: Παρουσίαση του προγράμματος και διευκρινίσεις από το συντονιστή του AGREE 10:00 13:00: Συζήτηση (σύμφωνα με τη υπό διαμόρφωση ημερήσια διάταξη) μεταξύ των εκπροσώπων των προσκεκλημένων φορέων (δημόσιος τομέας, ερευνητικά ιδρύματα, γεωπόνοι μελετητές, συνεταιρισμοί, βιομηχανίες και εταιρείες γεωργικών εφοδίων και εξοπλισμού, οργανώσεις αγροτών, νέοι αγρότες, κτλ) 13:00 14:00: Γεύμα Αθήνα, 14 Ιανουαρίου 2013 Ο Συντονιστής του έργου στο Γ.Π.Α. Καθηγητής Δημήτριος Μπριασούλης Πληροφορίες: Αθανάσιος Μπαλαφούτης τηλ: ,

13 Annex II Table 1: List of Participants Surname First name Profession Representative Stakeholder type 1 Kafritsas Georgios Agricultural 2 Tsagkaropoulos Mixail Mechanical 3 Konstantopoulos Dimitrios Electrical 4 Marda Dimitra Chemical 5 Smiris Mixail Mechanical 6 Ekonomou Maria Agricultural 7 Anastasaki Thalia Agricultural Agronomists of the world NGO P.I. Condellis S.A. Enterprise Agricultural Machinery Green tech Energy Enterprice Green energy technologies PASEGES PASEGES Directorate of reclamation work development and mechanical equipment / Ministry of rural development and food Directorate of reclamation work development and mechanical equipment / Ministry of rural development and food Farmers Association Farmers Association Central Government Central Government Telephone Web page georgek@georyt hmiki.gr gr info@greentech -energy.gr marda@paseges.gr smiris@paseges. gr li210u036@min agric.gr li210u010@min agric.gr mists.blogspot.gr/ gr

14 8 Drosinou Ioulia Agricultural 9 Fountas Spyros Assistant Professor, Agricultural 10 Tsianos Theodoros Farmer (vineyards) Directorate of Production and development of field crops / Ministry of rural development and food University of Thessaly Precision Agriculture Nemea Cooperative winery (member, ex- president) 11 Samantouros Kostas Animal Scientist Union of Agronomists scholars Greece -consultants 12 Balafoutis Ilias Farmer (forage sheep installation field crops olive groves) 13 Dimhtrakopoulos Dimitrios Agricultural Farmer 14 Karampelas Georgios Agricultural Farmer 15 Giannopolitis Kostas Dr. Agricultural, Editing Director 16 Briassoulis Demetres Professor, Agricultural Young Farmer s Association Ftiotida - member Central Government idrossinou@min agric.gr Research sfountas@uth.gr Farmer s cooperatives Professional Association t.tsianos@gmail. com Farmers kostas.samanto uros@agrek.gr hlias_mpal@hot mail.com Greenhouse farmer Farmers mpagosgim@ho tmail.gr Greenhouse farmer Farmers karampelas.n.gi orgos@gmail.co m Agrotypos S.A. Farm Structures Laboratory AUA Publishing company - agriculture Education Research & editor@agrotyp os.gr briassou@aua.g r nwines.gr etites.gr

15 17 Panagakis Panagiotis Assistant Professor, Agricultural Farm Structures Laboratory AUA Education Research & Balafoutis Athanasios Research Fellow, Agricultural Farm Machinery Laboratory AUA Research a.gr a.gr

16 Agriculture and Energy Efficiency 16 Annex III Table 2: List of Keywords to express the situation of an energy efficient agriculture in 2040 Keywords Agriculture 2040 A/A Keyword Number of participants 1 Stakeholders training 1 2 New cultivation methods 1 3 Ecological awareness 1 4 Energy recycling 2 5 Precision Farming (rational energy use) 4 6 Technological evolution of equipment 2 7 Life-long learning 2 8 RES development 3 9 Farm energy autonomy 2 10 Increased efficiency due to environment friendly technology 1 11 Organic fertilizers (compost) 1 12 Biogas production within the farm 1 13 Plantation grouping spatial planning Cooperatives 1 14 Agriculture of zero carbon footprint 1 15 Reduced production cost 1 16 Energy sources utilization in local level 1 17 Biodiversity protection 1

17 Agriculture and Energy Efficiency 17 Annex IV Table 3: List of opportunities in the effort to achieve an energy efficient agriculture Opportunities A/A Opportunity Number of participants Mentioned Priority 1 Economic crisis Technology development and use Internet blogs information access Easiness in human resources transport Global R & D Environmental awareness (citizen producer) Increased energy prices Investment programs (national, EU) Flexible legislative framework RES integration New farmers businessmen New business opportunities Cooperation Low energy footprint Applied research New low cost materials Qualified human resources Successful applied examples Environmental crisis climate change EU policies (in favor to environment) University market connection Precision agriculture International competition Demand on high quality / low price products Rational energy use for cost reduction Products with protected name of origin Gastronomical promotion of main Greek products Population and needs increase 1 1

18 Agriculture and Energy Efficiency 18 Annex V Table 4: List of bottlenecks in the effort to achieve an energy efficient agriculture Bottlenecks A/A Bottleneck Number of participants Mentioned Priority 1 Lack of efficient central planning Bureaucracy Lack of Cooperation Lack of technical assistance Lack of adequate funding Time of adaptation Lack of information availability Cost of equipment Economic crisis Fear to invest Small, fragmented farming land farm size economy of scale Existing farming methods Lack of consulting services Lack of available capital Lack of certification / labeling Product selection based on pricing Lack of public agricultural product auctions Lack of support for RES installation in agricultural infrastructure Lack of e-information Lack of agricultural training schools of farmers Stakeholders selling energy (especially petroleum based products) Inputs cost Farmers age structure Market distortion cartels Lack of business conscience Difficulty in adaptation European Union policies conflict with Greek reality Difficulty of the farmers in accessing the market Lack of regional planning local support Public sector understaffing No use of residues for energy purposes Lack of research results application in real life Farmers interest only on profit Capital attraction 1 0

19 Agriculture and Energy Efficiency Low human resources development No long-term targets 1 1