Cyprus’s LIVIA takes first place in Europe with smart farming platform

Economy agricultureaiartificial intelligencetechnologyTop News Cyprus’s LIVIA takes first place in Europe with smart farming platform Cyprus's Livia Takes First Place In Europe With Smart Farming Platform Relevant News Cyprus’s LIVIA takes first place in Europe with smart farming platform 25 July 2026 Cyprus may have world’s highest stray cat ratio, study finds 25 July 2026 Time for kleftiko in courtyards, in the village and in the city 25 July 2026 Evagoras Procopiou 25 July 2026 FacebookXWhatsAppEmailPrintViber The university team LIVIA has won first place at the European youth entrepreneurship competition GEN-E 2026, presenting an innovative smart farming platform that combines satellite data, autonomous drones and artificial intelligence. The Cypriot entry also picked up the FedEx Access Award, opening the door to contacts with investors, entrepreneurs and experts from across Europe. LIVIA is initially focusing on vineyards, aiming to help producers manage irrigation more effectively, detect diseases early and reduce pesticide use. By analysing each plant individually, the platform turns complex data into practical, tailored recommendations. The team is now working to complete its first functional product and launch pilot schemes in Cyprus, with the ultimate goal of expanding into new crops and international markets. From an idea to a smart farming platform What was the initial motivation behind creating the LIVIA platform, and what core problem in agricultural production are you trying to address? The original idea behind LIVIA started with a simple question: “How can we put satellite data to real, everyday use?” As a team, we looked at various applications, from meteorology to marine biology, but we quickly realised agriculture is a field where this technology can have a genuine, measurable impact. At the same time, we identified the limits of relying on satellite data alone, particularly around resolution and how often it’s captured. That’s how the idea came about to combine satellites with autonomous drones, building a complete platform rather than a tool that solves just one specific problem. LIVIA’s philosophy is to work as a modular platform, one that can keep growing with new data sources and capabilities. Our goal isn’t just to tackle a single issue, but to gradually improve the quality of decisions, and by extension, the quality of life for producers. The first areas we’re focusing on are managing water stress and irrigation, early detection and prevention of diseases to cut pesticide use, and overall monitoring of each plant’s health. We’re starting with vineyards, both because it’s a high-value crop and because of the particular importance of viticulture to Cyprus, as well as the team’s own personal connection to it. How does LIVIA combine satellite data, autonomous drones and artificial intelligence to support farmers? LIVIA was designed as a platform that brings different data sources together into a single decision-making system. Satellite data gives us a continuous, long-term picture of the crop, while also providing frequent updates on the general condition of the field. When greater precision is needed, autonomous drones take over, capturing very high-resolution images that allow us to monitor each plant individually. The third element is artificial intelligence. Machine learning models and specialised AI agents process all the available data, continuously learning from each new mission and adapting to the particular characteristics of each region and crop, so the recommendations become increasingly precise. At the same time, the platform can incorporate data that producers are already collecting themselves, whether through Internet of Things sensors or their own daily observations. This creates a single data ecosystem that turns information into meaningful, personalised support for each farmer. Targeted recommendations for every plant How is the data collected by the platform turned into specific recommendations for irrigation, crop management and the use of available resources? The process starts with data collection from both multispectral and conventional RGB cameras. Multispectral images allow us to extract vegetation indices and other information invisible to the human eye, while RGB images are analysed using computer vision algorithms to spot problems and changes in plant growth. All this data is then combined with satellite information and other sources available within the platform. The AI models and specialised agents process the full picture and turn the data into practical recommendations on irrigation, early disease treatment, optimising pesticide use and making better use of available resources. Because the analysis is done at the level of the individual plant, the recommendations can be extremely targeted, enabling genuine precision agriculture. The challenges of a complex tech solution What were the biggest technical or business challenges you faced while developing and testing LIVIA? The biggest business challenge was developing such a complex solution with limited resources. Although we’re part of the Bank of Cyprus’s IDEA programme and have received non-equity funding, this is a startup that combines software with specialised equipment, such as drones, multispectral cameras and charging stations. All of this requires significant investment, development time and continuous field testing. On a technical level, the biggest challenge is unifying many different data sources into a single, reliable system. The goal isn’t simply to collect information, but to turn it into accurate, trustworthy recommendations through artificial intelligence, so that the producer can genuinely rely on them when making everyday decisions. JA’s contribution to developing the idea How much did the JA StartUp Programme, mentors and national competitions contribute to developing your initial idea into a fully-fledged business proposal? The JA StartUp Programme was a very important step in LIVIA’s journey. It gave us the chance to meet exceptional people, receive substantial guidance from mentors and develop our idea into a complete business proposal. The Junior Achievement Cyprus team was extremely professional, always willing to help, and at the same time quite demanding, which pushed us to keep improving. After we won the national competition, they continued to support us with presentation preparation, feedback and guidance ahead of the European final in Latvia. We believe initiatives like JA are crucial for boosting youth entrepreneurship, because they don’t just focus on developing an idea, but help teams take the first real steps towards building an actual business. The European accolade and next steps What does first place in Europe and the FedEx Access Award mean for your team, and what are the next steps for commercialising and expanding LIVIA internationally? First place at GEN-E and the FedEx Access Award are the most significant recognition of our efforts to date. After months of intensive work, it was genuinely moving to see a Cypriot team’s work recognised at European level, among so many impressive young entrepreneurs. The FedEx Access Award opened the door to contacts with a global company and helped us see LIVIA’s international growth potential from a different perspective. At the same time, the connections we made in Latvia with investors, entrepreneurs and experts from across Europe gave us new partnerships and valuable insights into overseas markets. Right now we’re focused on completing the minimum viable product, the MVP, and the first pilot schemes in Cyprus. After that, our goal is to commercialise the platform, expand it into new crops and markets, and develop it into an international smart farming platform that keeps improving as it gathers more data. Subscribe to our Newsletter Latest News Cyprus may have world’s highest stray cat ratio, study finds Time for kleftiko in courtyards, in the village and in the city Things to do on Saturday, July 25 Clear skies today, but temperatures set to climb by Tuesday Christodoulides eyes Fitto meeting as Guterres visit looms Ambulance blocked by bollards as woman lies injured in Paphos Guterres’s Cyprus visit part of intense political push, UN peacekeeping chief says Follow en.philenews on Google News and be the first to know all the news about Cyprus and the world.