LRD’s mission is to support the management of water and soil resources towards the sustainable development of agriculture and the protection of environment.

To achieve its goals, LRD implements R&D projects and provides specialized consultancy services.

LRD provides scientific support and services to the Central Government, the Regional and Local Authorities, to farmer partnerships or individual farmers, as well as to private firms that operate in the sectors of agriculture and the environment. In this context, LRD collaborates with other research bodies and academic institutions, as well as consulting companies and freelance scientists in Greece and abroad. Also, it represents the Hellenic Agricultural Organisation to National and European scientific committees and bodies related to the management of water resources.

Taking advantage of its facilities and equipment, as well as the numerous R&D projects it implements, LRD systematically supports higher education through collaborations with academic institutions in Greece and Europe for traineeships and internships, undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral dissertations.

In its multi-annual course, LRD has developed a substantial and highly diversified activity through the numerous elaborated R&D projects, always addressing real life problems related to agricultural and environmental issues making use of and contributing to the cutting edge of scientific and technological knowledge. Today, it has 18 permanent staff members and employs more than 20 research associates in projects with a total budget of ca. 7M€.

Background: LRI was established by the Ministry of Agriculture in 1960 – as Land Reclamation Station – to found and develop research in land reclamation, in support of the national development plan in the agricultural sector. In 1964, the Station was relocated in its newly-built facilities in Sindos, where it is still housed. It was renamed to Land Reclamation Institute in 1972, and in 1989 it joined the National Agricultural Research Foundation as the competent Research Institute for land reclamation and in general soil & water resources management. In 2011, it joined the Hellenic Agricultural Organisation «DEMETER» and since January 2015 is a Dept. of the Soil & Water Resources Institute