[File photo]
An ambitious aerospace program of the Digital Governance and AI Ministry that has sent 11 Greek microsatellites into orbit will link Greece’s space strategy directly to critical sectors of the economy.
With a €200 million budget program and the participation of Greek universities, research centers and high-tech businesses, the program is providing specific benefits to the agricultural sector, among others.
“Greece is moving into a new era in the agricultural sector, utilizing the data offered by space. Through the National Microsatellites Program, we are creating for the first time a reliable satellite foundation on which critical tools are being built, such as the new digital map of high resolution and the annual cultivations map,” Digital Governance and AI Minister Dimitris Papastergiou told the state-run Athens-Macedonian News Agency.
Papastergiou added that the data comprises more than images. “They are the basis for objective decisions, fair subsidies, and effective inspections. It is the first time ever that the state can know in detail what is happening in a field, reducing vagueness and injustice. Our purpose is to transform information into trust – to support the responsible farmer, to simplify procedures and to boost transparency. Technology is becoming a tool of justice, and digital transformation is truly acquiring a foothold in the daily life of a farmer.”
Some of these uses will replace old methods with new and exact geospatial data, providing imagery background, satellite data and mapping of cultivations with high accuracy. The key is the new digital satellite map of Greece, a mosaic of images that covers the country’s entire territory.