For Farmers

Are you a farmer and interested in digital technologies?

Whether you are a “small”, or a “large” farmer; a dairy, poultry, fruit and veg, or arable farmer; a young or older farmer, DEMETER offers several benefits to you.

DEMETER is a European-funded project which aims to empower farmers and farmer cooperatives in two main ways. First, by allowing farmers to use their existing machinery and platforms to deliver new, integrated knowledge to help decision-making.  Second, by easing farmers’ updating or acquisition of machinery, platforms and sensors ensuring technologies speak a common language meaning they can be easily connected, combined and cooperate with each other.

Young woman with laptop sitting in plots vegetable garden. using agriculture technology using tablet computer analysis data read a report.
About DEMETER
Pilot Projects
Farmer Benefits
Farmer Interviews
Events
Resources

About DEMETER

DEMETER is a project funded by the European Commission which is focused on the digital transformation of the agri-food sector for the benefit of farmers and the industry as a whole.

DEMETER’s ambition is to facilitate and speed-up the deployment of data-driven, smart farming solutions that provide decision support and control systems for the agricultural sector.  This empowers farmers to take better decisions, allowing them to harness the full value of their own data and knowledge as well as those shared with others.

DEMETER aims to do this by enabling data sharing and use between different services, technologies and providers, providing farmers with solutions that are applicable to how they farm regardless of production systems, farm size or location.

All actors of the supply chain are represented in DEMETER. Organisations such as the World Farmers’ Organisation, IFA (Irish Farmers’ Association, APPR (Romanian Maize Grower’s Association, GFA (Georgian Farmers’ Organisation) and Coldiretti represent farmers’ organisations while farmers actively participate through their involvement in the pilot projects.

The end result of the DEMETER project will be a platform where interested parties from the agri supply chain can discover, develop, provide, and use a host of agri-tech related services.

Are you a farmer and interested in technology?

Farmers, your help is needed. To ensure the technical development within DEMETER centres on the end-user and their real needs, we apply a so-called multi-actor approach (MAA). This means we aim to include all possible end-users as stakeholders to provide their insights, which helps us to develop Smart Farming Technologies and platforms that meet your specific needs. Typical MAA activities in which you could participate include interviews, online workshops, or user tests. We would like to hear what you have to say about your farming experiences or the technology that we want to develop for farmers like you. The usual length is about one hour. The only requirements for participation are that you are a farmer and speak English sufficiently.

If you are interested in participating in any activity please fill out the below form:
Note: On mobile device, turn device to landscape to view full form.

Sign up form

We will contact you for the next activity.

There is usually not more than one request per month. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose than to contact you regarding participation in our MAA activities. Your email address will not be shared with third parties.

DEMETER pilot projects

DEMETER deploys smart farming technologies through a series of 20 pilots or use cases across 18 countries focusing on various clusters relating to arable crops, precision farming, fruit and vegetables, livestock health and welfare and the agri-food supply chain.

These pilot projects are used to evaluate the benefit of agri innovations for farmers and to demonstrate the importance of data sharing across devices.

Read our pilot booklet to learn more about the technologies being deployed and their benefits for farmers.

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DEMETER – Benefitting farmers

DEMETER has several stakeholders (groups or individuals) that have an interest in the project and the outcome of our actions and activities.  These include hardware and software providers, farm advisors, policy makers, consumers and, importantly, farmers.

DEMETER uses a multi-actor approach which is a way of ensuring that farmers’ real needs and problems are addressed.  Feedback from the pilot projects and engagement with farmers outside of  DEMETER is gathered through surveys, interviews, and workshops. This feedback is integrated into the projects’ activities to ensure that newly developed technical solutions meet real-life needs of the farmer.

The DEMETER project provides several benefits for farmers:

• DEMETER makes data sharing easier between different agri-platforms, -devices, and providers in a trusted and transparent fashion.

• DEMETER presents technologies and services from a range of different vendors offering farmers and advisors a selection of solutions so they can find the best fit for their farming operation.

• DEMETER gives farmers control of their data opening up new business models and new possibilities in collaboration and cooperation.

• DEMETER provides a simple and clear way for farmers and advisors to review and assess solutions to find the most appropriate solutions for their farm.

DEMETER Farmer Interviews

Hear first-hand about the experiences of some of the farmers involved in DEMETER

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Laslo Sinkovic – Poultry (Serbia)

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Jędrzej Wigura and Mateusz Wigura – Beekeeping (Poland)

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Jacob van den Borne - Potato Farmer (Netherlands / Belgium)

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Milena Peruničić and Katarina Pavićević – Viticulture (Montengrin)

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Edvard Shermandini – Viticulture (Georgia)

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Arable Crops (Romania)

Farmer Events

Check back here for DEMETER events and webinars relevant to farmers.

We are in the process of organising farm walks and virtual farm sessions in 2022 and 2023. These will allow farmers to experience some of the technologies being implemented in DEMETER and talk to the farmers’ involved.

Glossary of Terms

This glossary explains some of the most used terms in the DEMETER project.

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Resources & Research

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DEMETER Pilot Booklet

This booklet details each of the 20 pilot projects/use cases running in DEMETER.

Read more →

DEMETER Farmers’ Voice Report
The results of the DEMETER Farmer Voice survey are now available in the Farmer’s Voice report. The report outlines the main barriers and drivers to the adoption of Smart Farming Technologies.

DEMETER Farmers’ Voice Survey
DEMETER conducted an online survey to better understand the drivers and barriers to Smart Farming Technology adoption. We received 484 responses from farmers across 46 countries. A full report will be available very shortly.

DEMETER Farmers’ Needs and Concerns
In this paper, we summarize the main needs and concerns of farmers participating in DEMETER collected through interviews.

DEMETER pilot farmers share their opinions
We share the results of our survey of DEMETER farmers examining their main needs, interests and concerns with regard to digital technologies.

Farmers are the most trusted group within the food sector
This report from FIT Food Trust summarizes results from their survey of 19,800 consumers from 18 European countries to measure trust in the food system and confidence in food products.

The incentives and barriers to farmers’ adoption of digital technologies
This article from Ambra Raggi of the World Farmers’ Organisation for the DEMETER newsletter discusses the incentives and barriers to farmers’ adoption of digital technologies.

Get in Touch

If you have any questions or comments regarding DEMETER, drop us a line.

Contact us