Smart agriculture brings a revolution in farming practices, providing a combination of technological solutions and scientific applications taken from areas such as digital technologies, robotics, automation and data management. The integration of these technologies in all stages of agricultural production, increases productivity and production, reduces losses and efforts and improves the environmental dimension of agriculture, leading to greater profit and sustainability.
This specialization field aims to train students, who choose it, in technologies and knowledge that focus on:
• The transition from conventional to digital agriculture
• familiarization with the use of new information technologies in agriculture
• integration and implementation of artificial intelligence in agricultural practice
• applications of precision agriculture and smart agriculture
• employment and synergistic use of biosensors, Internet of Things, systems of unmanned aircraft vehicles, in agriculture.
Although conventional agriculture has existed for centuries, in the course of which it has evolved and developed thanks to technological achievements, in recent decades it has raised sustainability questions in the face of population growth, climate crisis, and other environmental issues. At the same time, conventional agriculture inevitably makes extensive use of external inputs (fertilizers, pesticides, etc.) to achieve high yields, while it has not used efficiently the available soil and water resources. Thus, there is an obvious need for a transition to a modern and more sustainable agricultural system, which can contribute to reducing environmental impacts, improving crop yields and food security.
Given the above issues, an obvious demand arises for a transition to more sustainable forms of agriculture in order to address the global food crisis, to protect the environment and to form conditions for a healthy, resilient and fair future. Smart agriculture is a technological revolution in agriculture that uses modern technological tools to improve farm efficiency, and reduce the environmental-climate footprint of production. It is the synergy of many modern technological achievements, including drones, sensors, automation and robotics tools, artificial intelligence and big data analysis, which aim to monitor and manage agricultural operations in a way that sustainably increases crop productivity and quality, while reducing their environmental impacts.