The objective of the conference is to contribute to the European Union policies on competitive and sustainable agriculture, in the light of the Greek EU Council Presidency and of the importance of agriculture within the Greek economy.

Both European and global agriculture face new, unprecedented challenges and solving these is high on the political agenda. Agricultural productivity needs to be increased in order to ensure food security for a growing population and a population with growing income and food tastes. On the other hand, biomass production needs to be increased in order to produce, not only food and animal feed, but also energy and industrial products. Both of these challenges have to be faced within the increasing uncertainty caused by the impacts of climate change and within the general acceptance that expansion of food production must be achieved through an approach that also encompasses sustainability of our environment and natural resources.

The conference aims to stimulate debate and improve the science based understanding of the challenges in front of the agricultural-environmental-climate system. This understanding should serve as a basis for formulating policy recommendations on how to tackle these challenges in the most efficient way.