The Head of EU Delegation to Serbia, Sem Fabrizi, pointed out that agriculture was an important factor of development in Serbia and that the export of agricultural products from Serbia had doubled in the previous few years.
The EU, Fabrizi said, will continue providing support to Serbia in innovations through the Horizon 2020 project, as well as to Serbian agriculture through the IPARD program, which would provide EUR 175 million.
He explained that the digital farm had been designed as part of the ANTARES project, jointly financed by the EU and the Government of Serbia. Fabrizi underlined that the ANTARES project, which encompasses the two most important sectors, IT and agriculture, was a good example of cooperation between Serbia and the EU.
Construction of BioSense Institute in Novi SadBrnabic said that the building of the BioSense Institute in Novi Sad needed to be built as soon as possible, as the institute is to be a European center of scientific excellence, and added that the Government of Serbia would set aside EUR 14 million for it.
She emphasized that it was important for the project documentation to be completed and for the construction to start as soon as possible and at the same time emphasized the importance of connecting agricultural databases so that efficient decisions could be made based on all the information.
– The Government reached the decision on founding a work group, headed by the minister of agriculture, forestry and water management, which will work on this together with the BioSense Institute – Brnabic added.
Farm open to allVisitors to the first digital farm in Serbia will be able to see for themselves how new technologies make agricultural production more efficient throughout the season, at the Digital Farm Open Days – how they enable the saving of resources (seed, fertilizer, water, human and mechanical labor), how they contribute to the reduction of risks related to the production and weather conditions, and finally, how they help increase the yields. At the digital farm, visitors will be able to see and test various devices, systems and mechanization for precision agriculture and to learn more, present their problems and work together on finding solutions that would improve their production through direct contact with agriculturists who already use the latest technologies.
AgroSense platformIn addition to the physical part of the digital farm, at which various modern devices, tools and mechanization are displayed, there’s also the virtual part – the Serbian digital agricultural platform AgroSense, which enables the monitoring of the crops and the planning of agricultural activities with the help of a mobile phone or a computer, based on the data gathered from satellites, drones, robots, various sensors and weather stations. The basic services of the platform are available for free at
www.agrosens.rs, and the platform is regularly expanded with new services, such as, for example, soil analysis, agronomic advice or scheduling surveying by drone. The Open Days will also be an opportunity for agriculturists to get free education for working with AgroSense and to say what their wishes and ideas related to the future functionalities and services are.
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