Greek ministry signs deal for 100% farm advisory service

Greece’s Ministry of Rural Development and Food signed a joint ministerial decision providing 100% coverage of agricultural advisory services to farmers, according to Newsit on Saturday 19 September 2026. The decision addresses, as the report states, the coverage rate of advisory services for farmers, without providing further details on how it will be implemented. Signing a joint ministerial decision is the administrative step required before a measure can be put into operation at a subsequent stage, before the specific terms of implementation are detailed. The Newsit report limits itself to this information, without mentioning additional details about the decision’s content.

Agricultural advisors constitute an institution of technical support for farmers, aiming to guide on cultivation issues, selection and proper use of inputs, as well as compliance with regulatory and environmental requirements governing agricultural production. Advisory support functions as complementary to the decisions farmers must make daily, from choosing cultivation practices to managing obligations stemming from national and EU frameworks. This is an institutional mechanism that, depending on how it is organized, can serve as a bridge between daily agricultural practice and the technical, regulatory or environmental developments affecting the sector over time.

Organized advisory support is particularly important for small and medium-sized farmers across all Greek regions, as they do not always have access to specialized technical knowledge or resources to seek it individually from private providers. In island and mountainous areas, where agricultural activity is often combined with limited resources and more difficult access to specialized services, an advisory service with broad coverage could facilitate adaptation to the requirements of modern agricultural production. The institutional anchoring of such a measure through economic decisions like the one mentioned by Newsit gains relevance for the countryside across Greece, regardless of region or farm size.

The Newsit report does not mention a budget amount or funding source for the measure, nor is a timeline for the start or full implementation of the decision published. The report also does not specify the number of farmers or agricultural advisors affected by the arrangement, nor does it name the specific minister involved in signing. For the measure to become fully operational, relevant circulars or implementation decisions must follow that will specify the terms of providing advisory services, how interested farmers will be included and any participation conditions. Until these details are published, the joint ministerial decision remains the only officially known step in the measure’s implementation process.