Good practice from Europe and the region: precision irrigation, digital tools and soil health

29 September 2026 updated · 6 min read · 15 views

The examples in this collection come from EU EIP-AGRI operational groups and from projects run by public institutions in Türkiye. Operational groups are project partnerships in which farmers and researchers work together on a problem in the field. For each example only the results published by the source are given; where results were not published in figures, this is stated. The selection focuses on three topics that matter for Kozan and Larissa: precision irrigation, digital tools and soil health.

Operational group examples from Greece and the Mediterranean

The first three examples were presented at the EU CAP Network cross-visit on irrigation held in Thessaloniki in May 2025, attended by 19 participants, including farmers, researchers and advisers, from 12 operational group projects in 8 Member States (EU CAP Network, 2025a).

1. Irrisma: precision irrigation in the Lake Koroneia basin (Thessaloniki, Greece)

Problem: the area lies within Natura and Ramsar protected sites and is under constant pressure from surface and groundwater abstraction. Lake Koroneia has shrunk in volume and area, and the aquifers suffer from over-pumping and declining quality. With compulsory well meters, water pricing and pumping energy costs, production costs are expected to rise sharply.
Solution: precision irrigation systems were installed on pilot fields together with sensors monitoring soil moisture, salinity and water use in real time; groundwater levels were monitored, and irrigation planning software combining climate, soil and water data was developed. A producers' group opened its fields for testing, shared data and showcased the results locally. Aristotle University of Thessaloniki led the research side.
Result: the project (December 2022 to May 2025) presented results quantifying water and energy savings and its groundwater monitoring data at the cross-visit. The public presentation text does not give the savings in figures (EU CAP Network, 2025b).

2. RicEnviFlow: growing rice with less water in the Axios delta (Thessaloniki, Greece)

Problem: reduced flow at the mouth of the Axios River is largely caused by irrigation abstraction. Rice needs large amounts of water, and crop water demand is expected to rise with climate change.
Solution: led by ELGO-DIMITRA's Soil and Water Resources Institute, an 8.2-hectare field was divided into three plots: irrigation according to local practice, 75% of that water and 50% of it. The scenarios were tested in the 2023 and 2024 seasons, and the flow reaching the river mouth was assessed with a water management model.
Result: even halving irrigation water had no significant effect on yield; the yield decrease did not exceed 7% and stayed close to the local average. Laboratory tests found no significant differences in grain length, width or weight. Net farm income analysis and the model showed that cutting water can be a viable strategy without compromising rice production (EU CAP Network, 2025b).

3. SUPERIRRI: automating surface irrigation (Emilia-Romagna, Italy)

Problem: surface irrigation by flooding and flow in permanent meadows and rice has remained almost unchanged for centuries and still accounts for about 15% of irrigation systems in the region. Water scarcity and extreme weather threaten protected supply chains such as Parmigiano Reggiano and Po Delta rice.
Solution: automation of surface irrigation structures, in-field sensors and the Irriframe decision support system were combined, and the movement of nitrate and irrigation water in the soil was studied.
Result: an average reduction of 15-20% in the volume of water used. Nutrient runoff and leaching, herbicide treatments and manual water handling all decreased, while forage yields and quality remained good (EU CAP Network, 2025b).

4. PreConAgri: soil health through conservation and precision farming in Larissa (Thessaly, Greece)

Problem: in areas such as Nikaia in Larissa, severe soil degradation makes climate change impacts worse and threatens farm productivity (EU CAP Network, 2025c).
Solution: since 2023 farmers and researchers have been testing, under real production conditions in durum wheat, a model that combines conservation agriculture (reduced or no tillage, permanent cover and residue mulch) with precision farming (variable rate fertilisation based on real-time sensing, machine guidance and controlled traffic).
Result: preliminary first-year findings from four pilot fields in two regions, published by researchers from the University of Thessaly and CERTH, show that conservation agriculture cut diesel-related energy use by 35.9-49.7% compared with conventional practice. Variable rate fertilisation reduced spring nitrogen use by 4.8-8.8%. Yield under conservation agriculture ranged from -4.5% to +1.3% relative to the control. Combining both approaches saved 14.3-29.5% of greenhouse gas emissions per tonne of product. The effect of controlled traffic was not assessed in the first year (Cavalaris et al., 2024). Final results were expected in August 2025 (EU CAP Network, 2025c).

Public-sector examples from Türkiye

5. Konya Closed Basin: programmed drip irrigation and conservation agriculture

Problem: in the drought-sensitive Konya Closed Basin, sugar beet is the largest farming activity, and sugar beet and grain maize are the region's most water-demanding crops. Land degradation and wind erosion are also serious problems.
Solution: the "Sustainable Land Management and Climate-friendly Agriculture" project (2015-2023) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and FAO, funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), set up drip and programmed irrigation demonstrations designed for local field and soil conditions: with 39 farmers, 11 apple orchards of 1 hectare each and 15 sugar beet and 13 grain maize plots of 2.5 hectares each. Farmer Field Schools brought the practice to the field. With TAGEM's field crops research institute, no-till direct seeding of green lentils and chickpeas was tested on five plots.
Result: water and energy savings of up to 30% for sugar beet and grain maize, with yield increases of 9% and 30% respectively; the success led to 12 additional demonstration sites. Winter sowing of green lentils under no-till was achieved. The project reported that its investments brought 59,867 hectares of arable land under conservation agriculture and avoided 36,768 tonnes of CO2 equivalent a year. The evaluation also recorded lessons: an imported direct drill broke down and could not be repaired for lack of spare parts, high inflation complicated purchases of drip materials, and soil carbon could not be monitored because the demonstrations were short (FAO, 2024).

6. TAGEM-SuET: a public decision support system for irrigation

Problem: irrigation that is not applied at the right time and in the right amount lowers irrigation efficiency and puts pressure on water resources.
Solution: the General Directorate of Agricultural Research and Policies (TAGEM) developed the Irrigation Management and Crop Water Use decision support system (TAGEM-SuET). It calculates crop water use, irrigation water requirement, irrigation scheduling, irrigation module, flow rate and water source needs. TAGEM trains users from technical staff to farmers and from irrigation associations to cooperatives.
Result: an online training held in Ankara in January 2024 was attended by 154 staff from provincial and district directorates, and TAGEM announced that training would continue in all regions. No public measurement of the water savings achieved in the field could be found (TAGEM, 2024).

Lessons for Kozan and Larissa

Set up side-by-side trials. RicEnviFlow and PreConAgri tested the new method next to conventional practice in the same field; that is what makes the results credible.
Make farmers partners. In Irrisma a producers' group opened its fields and data; in Konya, Farmer Field Schools brought the method to the field.
Plan machinery and spare parts from the start. The Konya direct drill shows how critical a service network is for imported equipment.
Publish the measurements. It is hard to learn from projects that share no figures; plan water, energy and yield measurements into any pilot from day one.
A cross-border opportunity: irrigation and soil health for citrus and cotton in Kozan and for cotton and wheat in Larissa are topics where a joint pilot could be sought through this network.

Sources

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