SAVAS SAVVIDES

But no matter the optimization in farming hardware, what is needed is a digital platform that contains all farmers that are willing to sell directly to anyone (end-user or wholesaler), so the product makes it to the end user at a much better price. I suggested that capo.gov.cy (where every Cypriot farmer is already registered) takes on this role, without any changes to the system but I was told that their "mandate is to make payments" and nothing else. CAPO, for example, contains a field called "Further details" that nobody uses. I want to be able to add the word "oranges" in that field, and CAPO can create a list every night with name, product and phone number. It only takes two lines of SQL code. I can design a similar platform in less than 5 days. But the issue of critical mass still remains. If not enough farmers are on it, not enough users will show up, and vice versa. The EU needs to adapt the system where all organic farmers are listed, to also allow those farmers to list the products they currently have for sale.

I am currently designing an electric battery-less tractor. The idea is that this tractor uses electricity from PV panels and essentially works only when the sun is out. This may sound strange at first, but keep in mind that sea transportation for thousands of years used the wind almost exclusively, and, the wind was not always available. I also made some progress in designing a 4 wheel robot that picks the potatoes from the ground once the tractor has ploughed them out of the ground. That machine uses delta robots and AI. Although delta robots are very fast, they mechanism for grapping the potato still needs improvements. I am also experimenting with a fruit picking robot that uses AI to identify ripe fruits and pick them without damaging them. The issue here is to make it with lost cost, so one can use many such machines at the same time. Otherwise, the process is very slow. Finally, I am currently experimenting with watering my organic oranges with a sub-terranean system. The idea is that the water is delivered 20cm below ground level. So the water goes where the roots are, with minimal evaporation and minimal weeds. So, just like IV medicine delivered directly to the blood veins, the water is delivered directly to the roots. But there is a number of problems. For example, the roots eventually grow into the holes that deliver the water. The overall system is more expensive. And the weeds are not so bad after all. Humidity actually gathers on weeds at night and trickles down to the soil. Weeds also provide shade to the soil, so less evaporation. But the system uses a lot less water.